Outtaverse part 12: Murderotica
by Madcap13
Summary: The quiet of a dehellmouthed Sunnydale is broken violently by the watchers council. The repercussions are unexpected and hold more threat than the watchers themselves.
1. Heart of gold

Outtaverse part 12: Murderotica

Summary : The quiet of a de-hellmouthed Sunnydale is broken violently by the watchers council who come to take their Slayers back under their control. The repercussions are unexpected and hold more threat than the watchers themselves.

Feedback: Read, review, get more to read, get more to review. It's the circle of life.

Disclaimer : I don't actually own the characters within. I'm sure you can find out who does with a little homework, a little googling maybe.

Warning : I really out did myself this time. If this aint one of the most screwed up thing you've read all year then I'm something wrong… or not as wrong as I should have. It's got violent fight scenes, swearing, violent sex, the use of dark magics, possible rape scenes, hostage situations, Slayer abuse and many and varied emotional torments. To put it bluntly, this one's got a lot of fruit for my average episode so be warned.

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At the chase mansion, in Faiths bedroom AKA strangle-land.

Unlike Spike, Faith was always stretching the limit of the chip in her head. Two days ago she found out that she could wedgie people so she pulled Xander up by the back of his underpants and hooked them on a coat hook on the wall of the magic box. Unfortunately for him, Anya wasn't any help getting him down as she was too busy rolling on the floor in laughter.

Right now, she was looking into magic. Into a magic book to be more precise. She was lying on her stomach reading the spell book, her feet swaying in the air as she slowly made her way through the tome.

The door opened and the Buffy came in. Faith tried to hide the book until she figured out that it just was the Buffybot.

"It's just me." the blonde said cheerfully, "What'cha doing?"

"Nothing much." Faith dismissed the Buffybot and went back to reading and taking notes.

Buffybot sat down on the bed next to Faith and read over her shoulder.

"I'm not in the mood right now." Faith told her, "Maybe later."

"Aww." the bot whined, "How about a neck rub?"

"No."

"I could bathe you."

"Hell no."

"Please?" the bot asked, placing her fingers on the back of Faith's neck, gently massaging the tight muscles there.

"I said no. You computed that, right?"

"Just relax." whispered the bot with a heated breath flowing down her neck.

Faith frowned. In the back of her head Faith felt that something was a little different from normal but she ignored it and said "Fine. Keep doing that if you want, just don't interrupt me."

Faith knitted her brow in concentration and started scribbling down a spell. Then the bot slammed the book shut.

"Hey!" Faith yelled, getting up to find herself slammed up against the wall by her throat.

Still keeping half the act up, Buffy ditzily said "Oh, I'm sorry. I made you lose your place."

"Damn, B! You always could play me." Faith chuckled, already over the shock of being caught, "And I like the new look."

Buffy had disguised herself by wearing a shamelessly short white silk dress with large slits up the side. Buffy had taken it straight off the bots back just a few minutes earlier. If Faith had really been looking, she would've been able to tell it was the real Buffy as the bot only wore underwear on patrol or when specifically asked.

"Do you want me to kill you? Has that been your plan all these years?" Buffy yelled at her. Buffy squeezed the hand around Faith's throat slightly more to emphasis her point.

But Faith just grinned and rasped "Could you squeeze a little harder? Not quite feeling it yet."

"You're such a bone head. Giles noticed that a book from his private collection had gone missing and there's really only one person who would have it. Willow wouldn't be interested in this and Spike isn't quite stupid enough to steal it. But you, you always were a little dense. So what have you got to say for yourself?"

"You mean besides that I've seen you naked?" Faith asked with a dry chuckle.

"Faith, you are this close to-"

Faith cut Buffy off by pushing away from the wall and forcing Buffy on the bed, pinning her there by lying on top of her. While Buffy was still surprised at the aggressive act, Faith shoved her hands up the sides of Buffy's dress, around her back and hugged her close.

"Faith!" Buffy yelled, wondering why Faith's chip wasn't going off and then realizing that Faith wasn't actually hurting her, "Faith, get off me!"

Faith just laughed, "I just want you to know, that if you're gay, I'm great with that."

"I'm not gay. Take your hands off my body. Faith! Get your hands away from there."

Buffy wedged her arms in front of her, stopping Faith from kissing her but found that it was Faith's hand on her behind was really making her squirm.

"You should just try it for once and get it out of your system." Faith suggested.

Buffy glared at Faith, "Time to board the clue train. For the last time, I'm not gay. I'm not you."

"I'm just tired of hearing about it so put out or shut up."

Buffy reached down with one hand to pull the hand on her ass away. As Faith grabbed Buffy's hand and placed it on Faith's fully clothed ass, Buffy rolled her eyes.

"This is so not happening." Buffy told Faith, "So just give it up."

"Buffy. You're just in denial."

"I am not in denial."

"You mean you came all the way over her, took the time and effort to dress up like the Bot just to catch me red handed with one of Britain's books?"

Buffy's face softened, "Okay. You've caught me. I-I didn't come here for the book."

Faith smiled widely, "Then you're in luck. Did you know that you're probably the only human being I can be with in Sunnydale?"

Buffy frowned, "Really? Why's that?"

"Oh sure, I can have sex with people but my chip fires and then its ruins the mood for me. But you, you can't cum so I can make you moan as much as I like. You ready for it?"

Faith smirked as she hooked her fingers in Buffy's panties. Before she got to pull them down, Buffy brought a knee up and clobbered her on the chin.

Faith collapsed and Buffy pushed her aside. Buffy got up, readjusted her panties back on properly and then kicked Faith in the face when Faith looked at her.

Since Faith was almost out of it, Buffy had no problem picking her up and setting her next to the wall where Faith had installed some nice leather restraints. First she belted Faith's right hand to the wall. By then Faith was waking up but not enough to stop Buffy restraining her left hand too. Then Buffy restrained Faith's head by a strap around her neck. From what Buffy could tell, there were other tough leather belts which she could use for other parts of Faith but she didn't see the point. She wasn't here to get her rocks off.

"Oww Buffy." Faith whined as some blood leaked out of her nose, "That really hurt. Don' have ta be so rough."

"Aww. I'm sorry. No wait. No, I'm not."

Faith frowned and pulled on her restraints to little effect, "Just so you know, I like putting other people in bondage, not being in bondage. So let me out."

"I don't think so. I like you exactly where you are."

Faith frowned but asked "So are you going to keep me waiting or get to work already? Get it over with."

"Faith. I didn't come here to do you."

"But you said as much."

Buffy sighed, "Okay. Here's the real situation. I woke up this morning to found my wallet missing. When I went to look in my car for it, I found that my car keys where missing. So was my car."

"Uh, Buffy. I didn't steal your car. You've got to believe me."

"Relax. I know you didn't. I know this because the Buffybot stole it."

Faith's eyes widened, "Bottie stole your car?"

When Buffy nodded, Faith laughed and asked "But she put it back, didn't she?"

Buffy nodded again, "Yes. She put it back but she maxed out my credit card."

"What did she buy?"

"I don't know!" Buffy said, throwing her hands up in defeat and sitting on the bed.

"Why don't you ask her?"

Buffy growled, "I DID ask her! She said it's a secret."

"A secret?"

"Yes. A secret! Did you ask the Bot to buy something for you?"

"No!"

"So you have no idea about this at all?"

"Buffy. I don't. I swear I have nothing to do with this. Did you ask Spike?"

"I asked him first actually."

Faith smirked, "So he's your favorite villain then?"

Buffy rolled her eyes at Faith's innuendo and instead of answering told Faith "Keep a leash on the Bot or I'll decommission it for you."

"A leash?" pondered Faith, "Hmm. Maybe I'll get it a dog collar and have it make little doggy noises while it's eating me out."

Buffy ignored this and took the book and Faith's notes from the bed.

After looking at the notes, Buffy said "You don't even know what you were writing down. Do you?"

"Just because you can't read it." Faith shot back.

Buffy looked at Faith strapped to the wall for a while and walked up so close that she was almost kissing her.

"Do you know why I let you keep the Bot?" asked Buffy.

"Cos deep down you think it's wicked?"

Buffy shook her head, "I let you keep it out of pity. That's all I have for you anymore. Pity. But Faith, you keep pulling stunts like these and you're just begging to lose my sympathy."

Faith glared at Buffy and then Buffy pulled Faith's chin down, which forced her mouth open. While holding Faith's mouth open with one hand, Buffy used the other hand to pull across a leather strap with a ball gag in the middle. Faith resisted this but didn't really have any choice but to swallow it when Buffy tightened it.

After all but silencing Faith, Buffy stood back and smiled.

"Maybe there's something to this bondage gig after all. Thank you for opening my eyes to it, Faith."

Still smiling, Buffy turned around and walked out, ignoring the whimpers from Faith as she closed the door behind her.

OXOXOX

In the front foyer to the Chase mansion, Willow was still interrogating the Buffybot. It was wearing what Kennedy referred to as street clothes, that is clothes the bot could wear in public without getting a ticket for indecent exposure. Just simple black skirt and a white blouse that was a few sizes too big.

"Has the little canary sung yet?" Buffy asked as she came down the staircase.

Willow shook her head.

"But I thought vee have vays of makink zem talk." Buffy imitated a bad German accent.

Willow looked a little embarrassed, "Well, I have found out a few things about her purchases."

"Like what?"

"She spent your money on Christmas presents." Willow said and the Buffybot nodded emphatically.

Buffy frowned, "So you brought toys?"

The bot nodded.

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Bottie, what toys did you buy? Where are they now?"

"It's a secret." the bot replied.

Buffy groaned, "Wait. Don't tell me. It's a secret until Christmas day when we get to open them up?"

Bottie nodded, "Yes. You're smart."

"But I'm Jewish." Willow reminded Bottie, "So it's okay to tell me what my present is."

Bottie shook her head, "Your present is for both you and Tara. Tara observes the traditions of Christmas so I will not tell you what your present is. It's secret. Ssh."

"Who told you what to buy?" Buffy asked, "Was it Spike?"

Bottie shook her head, "No. I formulated the selection myself from analyzing my friends on an individual basis. I do not want to give away any more hints. It might ruin the surprise."

Buffy sighed and told the bot, "Go up to Faiths room and release her for me, will you?"

"Okay." Bottie chirped and made its way up the stairs to Faith's room.

"Release Faith?" Willow asked, "Why? Did you tie her up or something?"

Buffy nodded, "She was getting a bit frisky."

Willow fidgeted nervously then said "Uh, okay."

"So Will, Do you think you could fix the bot to stop it borrowing my stuff?"

Willow shrugged, "I don't know. I'm not sure why it is. I think it's a problem in its difference engine. From filtering through its memory logs, I think it thinks that it's you. Or Rather, it thinks you are its ideal state of being. In short, you're its role model for certain types of interaction. I've tried reprogramming that out of it but one of its adaptive sub-processes keeps snapping that logic back into place."

Buffy squinted at Willow, "So can you fix it or not?"

"I guess I could just give it a lobotomy if I really had to."

"Good. Do it."

"But…"

"But what?"

Willow shifted on her feet, "Buffy. I'm not comfortable doing that."

"Why not? It's a toaster oven. It's not like it has feelings."

"But it's .. it's.. I can't just destroy something like that. It's a work of art."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Willow then turned her head as if she heard something, "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Willow asked, now trying to listen for something.

"Nothing. Just stay there."

"Okay." said Willow, standing very still while Buffy crept off deeper into the mansion.

"What'cho trying to do, girl? Kill me?" Kennedy grunted in the distance, obviously under strain.

"That's right." another voice said, "So who's your mommy?"

Buffy's eyes shot open and she rushed to where she heard the voices, opened a door and rushed in blind.

She found herself inside what appeared to be a gym. Kennedy was bench pressing a huge set of weights with Dawn pushing down on them.

"You've almost got it baby." Dawn egged Kennedy on, "Just a little more."

Kennedy gave Buffy the merest glance then kept on pushing the weights up.

Dawn raised an eyebrow at Buffy then said "Hi Buffy. We'll be with you shortly. And nice dress. Trying something new?"

Kennedy chuckled, the exercise burn having scrambled her brain slightly, "Dawn. That's not Buffy. It's just bottie."

"Nope. It's the real one." Dawn said shaking her head.

Kennedy frowned, "How can you tell?"

"She's wearing underwear." Dawn replied, "But don't mind her. You've still got two more."

Kennedy gave Buffy a longer second look and said "Oh yeah. It is her. She's got those cool cuts on her hand."

Dawn smirked and insinuated "So you like those, do you?"

Not embarrassed in the least, Kennedy said "Wouldn't kick them out of bed."

"So why are you wearing that anyway?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"Just some undercover work." Buffy mumbled as she watched Kennedy's taut muscles dance underneath her silky smooth skin. Then she looked at Dawn who was obviously having fun being the slayer's spotter. Buffy couldn't help but wonder as to Dawn's position on sexuality and not for the first time. For all intensive purposes, Tell was asexual but he was still a guy. Dawn was too young for anything more than a childhood crush on Xander but now she had Tell's memories and experiences to go by. She wasn't even sure if Tell was straight but by the way Dawn was smiling, maybe she was getting off on the hot, sweaty body underneath her. But then even if Tell was part of Dawn, they had a female body so their body chemistry would most likely be worked towards being attracted to the opposite sex.

Wouldn't it?

Buffy cleared her mind about such things, knowing that sooner or later she'll find out the truth.

While Buffy had been thinking, Kennedy had finished her repetitions and had gotten off the bench, while Dawn massaged some circulation into her shoulder muscles.

"Buffy, you've got to see this." Dawn said enthusiastically as she held up one of Kennedy's arms, "Check out these guns."

Kennedy flexed for effect and Buffy admitted "That's impressive."

Then Buffy checked out her own arms which just looked stringy. Buffy reminded herself that it was just outwards appearance. In reality she was supernaturally powered so actual muscle mass didn't matter that much. Or did it?

Faith had always been able to hit harder than her but Buffy countered that with experience and speed. She hadn't really given much thought to Faith's actual build. Instead she guessed it was Faith's mentality, wild but kind of slow at times.

"So what's up?" Kennedy asked, "And really. What is it with the dress?"

"Just playing with Faith's head." Buffy explained, "So does weightlifting help with slaying?"

Kennedy shrugged, "A little. Although, it seems like I'm always eating."

Dawn laughed, "It's true. We're slowly working towards the day when she can eat an entire cow."

"Talking of which." Kennedy laughed, "Buffy, would you be interested in some brunch?"

Buffy shook her head, "No thanks. I'm trying to cut down on brunch. It's always sounded like an imaginary meal for me."

"How about a few turns on the bench then?" Kennedy offered, "I'll spot you. Don't trust Dawn though."

Buffy shook her head and started to leave, "I don't think so. Maybe later."

"You know, Faith has started weightlifting." Dawn mentioned and Buffy stopped in her tracks.

"Really?" Buffy asked, turning slightly to face them.

Dawn shrugged, "Just some fifty K free weights. Some bench work. Don't tell me you haven't noticed the difference."

Buffy frowned, "Uh. No. I haven't any difference."

Dawn tilted her head as if she was thinking and said "Maybe you haven't been looking. But underneath those clothes, she's putting on some tone."

Buffy kept frowning and walked out, as she made her way back to the foyer Willow asked her "What was it?"

"Just those two." Buffy said, referring to the two girls now following her back to the main hub of the building.

Kennedy came out, towelling the sweat off her face, "Hi Willow. Looking good."

Willow gulped and replied "And you're looking very.. sweaty."

Kennedy chuckled and kept walking into the dining room, on her way to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Dawn and Buffy watched the interaction with some interest.

"There's nothing between you two is there?" asked Dawn when Kennedy was a suitable distance away.

Willow shook her head emphatically in the negative, "No. Nothing at all."

"You have been acting weird around her." Buffy noted.

"I have?" Willow asked, trying not to act weird, "Since when?"

Saving Willow from more prodding, the Buffybot came down the stairs, trying to look sullen.

"Ooh. Bottie!" Willow said eagerly, "What's with the long face?"

"Faith was very angry with me." Bottie pouted, "Someone mean strapped her to the wall. She doesn't like that."

Now Willow and Dawn were looking at Buffy and it was her turn to squirm.

"What!" Buffy asked, "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

Willow sniggered and said "It's always the ones you least expect."

Buffy glared at her, "Okay. I've had enough of this place. We're going. See you later, Dawn."

"Aren't you going to change first?" Willow asked, looking at Buffy's legs for emphasis.

"I can change at home." Buffy said, already out the door.

Willow gave Dawn a wave goodbye and outside Buffy yelled "Willow! Come on. This thing is colder than it looks."

Dawn gave back a quiet "Bye." which Willow missed as she left.

Once they were out of the room, the Buffybot approached Dawn and asked "Can I have your help on something?"

Dawn looked warily at the mechanical replica of her sister, "For what?"

"Willow said that the Christmas presents I brought might not be suitable. I believe that at the time she was trying to trick me so that she could find out what I had brought her. I have thought about it since and I think she might be right. Would you look at the presents I have brought and tell me if they are suitable?"

Dawn raised an eyebrow, "You brought Christmas presents?"

The Bot nodded.

"It's not even November." Dawn argued.

"I wanted to get them as early as possible. In case I couldn't get them later during the end of year rush."

Dawn thought about and sighed, "Sure. Whatever. Show me."

The Bot led her down the hallway to the robot's designated room. It was a large room with a cheap double bed, a walk in closet and a small clutter of computer and electronic equipment near the bed for Willow's attempts at maintenance and management.

Bottie opened up the walk-in closet and walked in. After making sure no one was looking, the bot took out a few boxes from the floor and opened them up.

Dawn wasn't that curious but decided to humour the robot.

Once she saw what the presents were, Dawn's eyes shot wide open and she yelled, "Bottie! Those are all sex toys!"

Bottie looked back at her with a blank look, "Aren't sex toys a good thing?"

"I guess." Dawn said with a shrug then tilted her head curiously at something in the boxes, "Holy cow! I haven't seen one of those in millennia. I didn't know this dimension even had THOSE. Where did you find them?"

"In Los Angeles. They just have everything." The bot said with a smile, "But they were very expensive. I couldn't afford more than two. For someone who's saved the world, I have very poor credit rating."

Dawn looked at the bot strangely, until she realised that the bot must have been using Buffy's credit card.

"Who are you going to give those to?" Dawn asked, pointing to something to one of the boxes.

"I'm going to give one to Tara and Willow as a joint gift and the other I'm going to give to either Faith or Kennedy."

After shaking her head, Dawn said "I don't trust Faith with one of those, so perhaps you should give it to Kennedy."

Bottie frowned, "But Faith would have so much fun using with on me. I know she would."

Dawn gave the bot a sad smile, "And she'd probably use it with Spike too."

This made the bot grimace, "Yes. You're right. I'll give it to Kennedy. But do you think they will be good presents?"

Dawn looked in the boxes one more time and shivered, "I'm sure everyone will love their gifts. But in the future, try buying clothes instead. It's so much safer than .. Those."

"Ooh! I brought myself some clothes." Bottie said cheerfully, "Because sometimes I don't dress very well."

Dawn frowned, realising that the bot was talking about the actual Buffy again. Its identity crisis was more of a headache for Dawn than her own.

"Fine. Whatever. Just remember, when you give them out, make sure you tell everyone to open them in private. And putting them under the Christmas tree might not be a good idea."

OXOXOX

About two hours or so later, Buffy find herself at the airport and holding a sign.

Buffy sighed impatiently. She thought she was going to be late but she arrived early and now the plane she was waiting for had just come in late. She didn't know what it was with this airport but she had already been hit on by two passer-bys. She hadn't forgotten to change out of the bots silk slip so she couldn't explain it. In fact, she had changed into the staple drabness of blue jeans and a plain white t-shirt so she guessed it was just something in the summer air.

Finally, people started exiting the plane and everyone else waiting got their signs ready. Buffy's sign read "TWIST" in bold, black, demanding letters.

Then he walked into Buffy's view, with his arm wrapped around a business woman's waist. He was dressed casually but on the verge of formal. His impeccably fashionable clothes bore a dishevelled state like a badge of honour. Also, he lacked all the cold determinism and intensity of Tell. His hair was longer and slightly untidy. He even looked taller that Tell. Buffy took a double-take, making sure that this was Tell's twin brother. Twist noticed the sign she was holding up and said something to the thirty-something woman attached to his hip.

The woman wrapped her hands around Twist face and gave him a deep kiss that looked like she was trying to suck the life out of him from his mouth. It seemed Twist wasn't a victim in this attack by the way he was going with the flow. But after a long minute, the woman stopped and gasped for breath while Twist just stood back and gave her a small, twisted smile.

Then the fully-grown and totally flushed red woman slowly turned and started walking away.

"Have a good time in Los Angeles." Twist called after her as he approached Buffy.

"Who was that?" Buffy asked.

"Who? her?" Twist asked, looking at the retreating business woman, "Annette I think. Maybe it was Lysette. Something with ette at the end, I'm sure of it. Poor thing was afraid of flying. I put it upon myself to alleviate her distress."

Then Twist gave Buffy an appraising look, like he was window shopping for a diamond ring. She couldn't shake the feeling that he had x-ray vision.

"You would be Buffy?" Twist asked in a playful, ever so slightly Transylvanian accent, "You weren't what I expected."

"You expected me to be taller, right?" Buffy laughed, "I get that a lot."

"No, that's not it at all. When I heard you were a Slayer I thought you were going to be a cold, heartless monster but you're so.. human."

"That's because I am human." Buffy stated, "All Slayers are human."

"That doesn't mean they all act it." Twist replied, "So shall we get my luggage?"

Buffy shrugged and they both walked to the luggage section of the airport.

"Air travel has really progressed since I last flew." Twist noted as they waited for his luggage to be trolley along the conveyor belts.

"And when was that?" Buffy asked conversationally.

"In world war two." Twist said, now smirking, "I normally go by boat. You see, I like to take my time. But this time I took a more direct approach due to our mutual family problem."

Buffy nodded but didn't say anything.

"I want to say thank you for calling me." Twist added, "I can see that I'm making you very uncomfortable and for that I'm sorry."

"Are you really?" Buffy asked, not in accusation but almost in scientific curiosity.

Twist considered the question and smirked ever so slightly, "Truth be told, I'm not be killing myself over it."

After that, Twist stepped forwards and picked up a suitcase and a guitar case off the conveyor belt.

"I'm ready." Twist told Buffy, "Take the lead."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at the guitar case, "You play guitar?"

Twist nodded, "I've been playing guitar for almost six hundred years."

"Wow. You must be good." Buffy said, now leading the way.

"It has been said." Twist said with as he trundled his suitcase along on the rollers attached to the bottom.

Buffy smirked at him, "I wasn't talking about THAT."

Twist smirked back, "I wasn't either."

"So are you really good with a guitar?"

"I could serenade you on the drive back to Sunnydale."

Buffy considered this, "I don't think I've ever been serenaded before. I once had a boyfriend who played the guitar but he forgot to do that part."

"Really?" Twist asked as if shocked, "It's actually why I learnt the guitar. In fact, it's the reason for the guitars popularity in modern society."

Buffy blinked, "You know, you don't really come off as a …"

"Whore?" Twist asked with a chuckle, "You can say it. It's not a dirty word if it's true."

"Yeah. That."

"And just how would you expect me to be?"

"I don't know." Buffy admitted, "Kind of Slimy."

Twist nodded in agreement, "That is a common trait. But for me, it's not a necessity or a compulsion. It's a vocation. A calling. You of all people would understand a calling, being a Slayer."

"But I don't have a choice in the matter." Buffy laughed, "Why on earth would you consider being a, you know, a calling?"

"In modern society, prostitutes are the untouchable class. The majority live empty, barren lives of despair and self-loathing. Almost everyone they deal with, including themselves, is after the same thing. They're after love and understanding and acceptance which they're not getting from their lives. That's what I try to deliver. In a way, you could consider me a type of counsellor."

Buffy blinked at him, "Dude. You have people pay you money for sex."

"Not always." Twist shot back, "Like I didn't ask Juliet back there for money. I was just being nice."

Buffy frowned and asked "Are you saying that you just joined the mile high club?"

"No." Twist said with a straight face.

"Oh. Well. Good."

"I joined that in the first world war." Twist told her and burst out laughing.

OXOXOX

Chase mansion. Lounge.

Kennedy and Faith were in the lounge, both playing on a game console when Buffy and Twist walked in.

"Ohho!" Kennedy whooped, "I stole your bacon."

Faith looked at the younger Slayer with contempt, "Hey. That doesn't count. Extenuating circumstances."

Kennedy laughed at Faith until she saw Twist and stared at him.

"This is Twist." Buffy introduced him, "Tell's twin."

Faith chuckled, "You mean the hooker?"

Twist grinned and nodded proudly, "That's me."

Kennedy blinked, "He's a what?"

"A rent boy." Faith explained.

"A sex worker." Twist added.

"A consensual criminal." Faith added, now starting up some momentum with the new comer.

"A courtesan."

"A pro."

"A sanky-panky"

"A go-go guy."

"Alright!" Buffy yelled, "We get it! He sells his body for money. We all understand."

"Come on, B. It's fun." Faith laughed, "You try one."

Kennedy was still confused, "You're saying he's a .."

"A prostitute. Yeah." Faith chuckled at her sister Slayer, "You're not getting over this any time soon are you?"

"But he's a guy. Guys can't do that, can they?" asked Kennedy, "I can't imagine there would be much demand for that sort of thing."

"It's very much a niche market." Twist admitted, "But I find it fulfilling bringing a little light into lonely peoples lives. Like I wouldn't mind offering my services to you."

Kennedy shook her head, "I'm lesbian."

Twist shrugged, "I don't discriminate against minorities."

Buffy had finished glaring at Twist, realizing she wasn't having any effect. Instead she asked the two other Slayers in the room, "Have you seen Dawn around?"

"She's in her room." Faith told Buffy, "Probably contemplating her navel again."

"Thanks." Buffy replied and led Twist towards Dawn's room.

Before Buffy knocked on the door, she stopped herself. There was a strange sound coming from inside the door. It was a low rumble. When she put her hand on the door, it was hot to the touch. Alarmed, Buffy quickly opened the door.

Inside, Dawn was in a lotus position with her eyes closed and levitating several feet off the floor. Between her hands, two soft arcs of rainbow light met to fold continually into a bundle of hot spark of intense light which hurt Buffy's eyes when she looked at it. She held her hand up to block the glare and tried to figure out what was happening.

The harsh light cut off and Dawn unfolded her legs so that she was standing upright. After a few seconds standing there, Dawn blinked her eyes open and she glared at Buffy.

"Haven't you heard of knocking?" Dawn whined then gasped when she saw Twist standing behind her sister.

Twist walked into the room, up to Dawn and tilted his head.

"Tell." he said softly.

Without warning, Dawn rushed Twist and squished Twist with a violent hug.

"Ugg." Twist gagged then chuckled, "I missed you too."

"Don't leave." Dawn asked.

"I'm not." Twist said, a little easier now that Dawn had let up on the constriction of his lungs, "I'm staying in town a while. Enough time for you to get sick of me."

"How?" Dawn asked.

Twist thought about the question then said "Buffy called me."

Dawn let go of Twist then back up and stood up a little stiffer, saying "Thanks Buffy. It-It means a lot to me."

"How long have you been practicing levitation?" Twist asked, on a different topic.

"A few weeks. I'm not very good." Dawn said, down-spirited.

Twist blinked, "Only a few weeks? Girl, you're a natural. Calico spent centuries before he could get that right."

"But I can't do it outside of meditation." Dawn explained.

"But you were doing some energy manipulation at the same time." said Twist, flabbergasted at how Dawn was downplaying her abilities.

"Excuse me." Buffy asked for attention, "But Dawn, what were you just doing?"

"Practicing." she replied easily.

"Practicing magic?" Buffy asked, "By yourself!"

Dawn shrugged in a so-so way.

Buffy frowned, "I think maybe we should talk to Willow about this. I'm not sure I like the idea of you playing with magic. It could be dangerous."

Twist chuckled and shook his head, "She's not using human magic. The magic we use has different rules. In fact, we can't use human magic so I doubt any of your magically inclined friends would be any use in this."

Then Twist's brow quirked a few times and he looked at Dawn, "I can't human magic at any rate. You might be able to now."

"I haven't tried any yet." Dawn mumbled.

Buffy was still frowning, not liking the idea of Dawn using magic at all.

"We should talk to the others about this." Buffy insisted, "Tell never used any magic."

Dawn rolled her eyes, "Actually, he did all the time. I've lost the knack for some of his tricks though."

While the sisters talked, Twist was looking Dawn up and down. After a while, Dawn looked at Twist and asked "What?"

"Just taking a look at you." Twist replied, "It's bizarre. You're Tell but you're also not Tell. Also you're lucky you turned out so beautiful."

Dawn turned red and said "Shut up."

Twist smirked, "I am just stating the obvious. And look at that smile. It makes the whole room glow."

Dawn tried to stop smiling and glare at Twist but she was having trouble. Instead she looked away and asked Buffy, "Why don't you show Twist around for a while? I haven't finished my training regime yet."

"I'd like that." Twist said, hooking his arm under Buffy's.

Dawn rolled her eyes and told Buffy "You better watch him."

Buffy wasn't sure what Dawn meant but didn't ask. Instead, she left the room more confused than when she entered. Twist was still hooked into her side with a smile on his face.

As they walked on their way out of the mansion, Buffy looked to Twist and noticed he was smiling.

"Wow." he elaborated, "She's adorable."

Buffy nodded and asked "So who was that Calico you mentioned inside? Another echo."

Twist nodded, "Nice guy."

"So how many echoes are there?"

"As far as I know there's only two of us two in this dimension. Altogether? I couldn't say."

"And you guys can do magic?"

Twist nodded, "A little here and there. We've all got a few tricks up our sleeves."

"Really?" Buffy asked curiously, "So what's yours?"

He lowered the hand he had hooked around Buffy's arm and stroked the inside of her hand, saying "Get to know me well enough and you might find out."

Finding it ticklish, Buffy tittered and took her hand away, "So that's what she meant by I better watch you."

"Oh yeah. I'm sneaky."

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter


	2. The Devil inside

OXOXOX

Magic Box.

Giles and Anya were at the counter while Willow and Tara were sitting at the table in the middle of the room. All of them were reading when Buffy and Twist sauntered in from outside.

Everyone looked up from what they were reading and stared at the spectacle.

"Oh! Hello Twist!" cheered Anya as she shuffled around the counter and hugged the demon lightly.

"Hello Anyanka." Twist said and took a look at her, "I've got to say, humanity looks good on you. Who would've thought?"

"Aww. You're just saying that." Anya replied bashfully.

"No, it's true. Who would've thought that the fearsome Anyanka, scourge of men everywhere, would fit so snugly into those child-bearing hips?"

"Flirt." Anya said, blushing, "What are you even doing here?"

"I asked him here." Buffy explained and got a range of strange looks so she added "For Dawn. As a surprise."

This got her some stranger looks so she added again "He's here in a non-professional capacity."

Tara spoke up and asked "So he's the one who-"

"Is a prostitute!" Buffy yelled her interruption, "Yes. That's right. Get over it already."

Tara flinched back and shook her head, "No. I wasn't going to say that. I meant, he's the one who helped us with the goa'uld problem."

Twist nodded happily, "Yes. That was me. So how did that work out anyway?"

Tara grinned and patted Willow on the shoulder, "Willow recovered remarkably well."

Twist grinned too, "That's good to know. Those goa'uld creep me out."

Buffy blinked at Twist like he just grew another head, "They creep you out?"

Twist nodded easily enough, "What's so strange about that?"

"You're okay with Anya in the prime of her evil but those body-hopping worm guys creep you out?"

Twist nodded, "I got possessed by one once. Eventually I just got a friend to cut my head off and throw it in a fire. The intense pain was almost a relief to hearing that thing prattle on."

"You cut your own head off?" Buffy asked, "And what? It just grew back."

"It's more common than you would think." Anya stated, "I once knew this guy whose head just dropped off every fifty years and then he would grow another body from the neck down."

"How long does it take for your head to grow back?" Willow asked.

Twist shrugged, "A few hours. See, the thing about not having a head that most people don't understand is that it's really boring. There isn't much to make the time go by faster either."

Buffy stopped staring at Twist long enough to notice all the books on the table, "So what's the research for? Did some new big bad rear it's head and no one thought to call me?"

"We're just studying for Uni." Willow explained, "No big bad."

"You're doing homework?" Giles asked, scandalized "In my store? I thought you were studying magic. Why would you study for university in my store?"

"We wanted to get out of our dorm room for a while." Tara explained.

"And you didn't think of the park?" Giles hinted.

"But it's all windy and possibly rainy outside." Willow replied.

Now that Giles was free of the counter, he walked up to Twist and held his hand, "Rupert Giles."

Twist took the hand and shook it, saying "Arr yes. Buffy's watcher. Buffy speaks of you in glowing terms."

"She does?" Giles asked, looking at Buffy.

"I do?" Buffy asked, looking at Twist.

Twist nodded, "I believe you described him as major league smart."

"So Buffy is showing you around town?" Giles asked, trying to stay amiable.

Twist nodded, "Although she still hasn't shown me to a hotel."

Buffy blinked at Twist, "Oh. I thought you were joking about that. You actually want to stay in a hotel? What's wrong with staying with Dawn? She lives in a mansion. They've got tons of room."

"From experience, Tell and I never live in the same house. We grate on each others nerves far too much. It might be different now but I don't see a reason to test the theory."

"You could stay with us." Buffy offered, "I'm sure Mom won't mind."

Twist nodded and smiled warmly, "That sounds nice. Anyway, it's nice to meet you all. I'll just wait outside while you talk."

Buffy and the others watched him suddenly depart the room.

"What was that about?" Buffy asked, looking at Anya.

Anya shrugged, "Got me."

Buffy moved to follow the little demon then asked "So everything is okay in here?"

Giles nodded, "Fine. There are no pressing slayer related matters."

"Great. Then I'll see you tonight for pre-patrol." Buffy said with a smile and walked outside to find Twist waiting for her.

"Why did you just leave like that?" Buffy asked, "It was rude."

"I was getting some serious tension from the blonde witch in there. Her name's Tara, isn't it?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah. Tara didn't get along with Tell."

Twist frowned and asked "Okay, so what did Tell do this time?"

"He killed her father."

"Are you sure?" Twist asked Buffy then realized Buffy wasn't lying, "Oh. Uh. This is embarrassing. But he was evil, wasn't he? A warlock or a demon worshipper?"

Buffy shook her head, "No but .. He had Tara believe she was going to turn into a demon on her twentieth birthday. It was just a scam to have her, I don't know, be the families live-in butler or something."

Twist nodded, "So the Father got out of control and Tell killed him?"

Buffy shook her head, "No. We told him to leave town and he tried. Tell killed him while he was driving away. We found out about it by police records."

Twist frowned, "That doesn't sound like him at all. Are you sure it was him?"

"He freely admitted it."

"Strange. Tell doesn't normally doesn't get involved in family quarrels. He likes to keep his violence simple."

"How well did you know Tell?" Buffy asked curiously.

"Like the back of my hand." Twist replied, "For almost nine or so thousand years, the only constant in our lives was each other."

Twist looked at the floor sadly and continued "I'm not sure what's going to happen now. When I look at your sister I don't see Tell in her at all."

"Could you.. Could you tell me about Tell?"

Twist looked up at her glumly and said "I can do that."

"It's just, when I see Dawn now, she's so different."

Twist smiled at that, "How about we get some coffee and you can tell me about Dawn while I tell you about Tell?"

Buffy smiled, liking that idea, "Sure. There's a coffee shop just down the street."

Buffy gestured with her head and Twist followed. After a while walking, Buffy looked at Twist oddly and said "Hang on. You don't need to eat. Why would you drink coffee?"

"And you drink coffee for the nutritional value?"

"Well, no."

"You drink it because it's nice and warm and has a pleasing taste. Why wouldn't I do the same?"

"Umm. Because Tell doesn't drink coffee."

"There are a lot of things Tell doesn't do."

Buffy agreed with that sentiment by the time they reached the espresso pump. Buffy ordered a generic coffee with two sugars while Twist ordered an espresso only to find out that they didn't actually sell them. So he ordered a second of what Buffy ordered and both of them moved into a booth and waited for their orders.

"First thing I could say about Tell is that he can keep a grudge like no one's business." Twist told Buffy, "Doesn't believe in the statute of limitations at all. He's still mad at me for sleeping with his girlfriend four millennia ago."

"Huh?"

"It was an honest mistake. I didn't know she was his girlfriend. I thought she was just a very friendly person." Twist said dismissively then asked Buffy "So tell me, how much do you know about echoes?"

Buffy shrugged, trying to look innocent and said "Not much."

"Tell didn't tell you anything, did he?" Twist asked, "That's so him."

"He was very quiet about himself."

Twist nodded, "Well, the major part of what we are is from when we were born. When we came to life, existence was swept up in the chaos wars. You've heard about that, haven't you?"

"A few things."

"It was a time of well, chaos. Particularly for everyone born in that time. It was as if the universe was trying to rip itself apart."

"What does this have to do with Tell?"

"A lot actually. You see, we were created by evil to do evil. And we did for a while. We didn't know any better. The bad guys had us so hopped up on dark magics we couldn't think straight. I'm actually one of the lucky ones. I'm a lot younger than Tell was. I only got a few years being evil's strawberry while he got a few decades of the hard stuff. He's never really told me how much older he is."

Right then, a waitress came by and gave them their coffees and Twist and Buffy gave them a thank you.

"So you were evil." said Buffy, prompting Twist to move on.

"On Evil's side but not necessarily evil as such. Tell loved it. But more than anything, he loved our progenitor."

"Your progenitor?" Buffy asked, "You mean the ancient evil guy you were cloned from?"

Twist nodded slowly, "You know that but you don't know who it was?"

"Does it matter? I mean, he was evil, right? What's the difference between him and every other evil guy?"

Twist said "He's the Devil." then took a sip of coffee.

"Well, yeah so?"

"No. I mean, he actually is the Devil. Ugh! This coffee is horrible."

"The actual devil?"

"That's right. Ruler of hell, carries a pitchfork, the man who would be god. That guy. I think they burnt this coffee and oh god! they put white sugar in it. You don't drink coffee with white sugar. Barbarians."

"What do you mean by the actual devil?"

Twist rolled his eyes, "I'm talking about Lucifer here."

"Lucifer?" Buffy asked, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah. The original fallen angel. The great rebel. The adversary. The most fallen of all angels. I'm sure you've heard of him. He's in most religions or at least someone pretending to be him."

"Like the snake who tricked Eve with an apple and stuff?" Buffy asked, "You're trying to tell me your dad was a biblical figure?"

"I don't know the story behind that whole garden of Eden fiasco. It was before my time but it sounds like something he would do."

Buffy squinted at Twist, "You're actually serious?"

Twist nodded glumly, "Yes."

"So angels exist?"

"They do."

"They do?" Buffy asked, now not so skeptically, "Really?"

"Yes. Really." Twist said with a smile, "I've meet a few actually."

"So what are they like?"

"What do you think they're like?" Twist asked, "They're angelic. Not very polite but very angelic."

"You know that I'm going to ask Dawn about this."

Twist nodded, "And she'll collaborate."

Buffy looked at Twist for a moment as the skepticism fell away and she asked "So you were raised by the Devil?"

"No but he did pop in occasionally to check how we were doing."

"What was he like?"

Twist rolled his eyes, "What do you think he was like? He was evil, of course."

"I mean besides that."

"Oh. Well, hmm. He was a real lech. Something I inherited from him."

Buffy smirked, "I hadn't noticed. But did he look exactly like you? You were cloned from him, weren't you?"

Twist shook his head, "Common misperception. He's a lot older. If he was human I'd say he looks around forty something."

"So.. Tell loved the devil?"

Twist nodded sadly, "He was a zealot. You see, back then, old prune-face had us think he was God. A lot of us, including me, weren't very happy with the continual warfare. But Tell relished it. He was a squad leader, which is actually where he got his name from. In the old language we'd call him commander because he would TELL us what to do."

Buffy frowned, "So why do you call yourself Twist then?"

Twist laughed nervously and shook his head, "We're talking about Tell here. Not me."

Buffy frowned and asked instead "So you guys thought Lucifer was the good guy in all this. That's what you're trying to tell me?"

"But isn't that the worst type of evil? Those that are mistaken as good?" Twist asked, "The saddest thing about him is, I think he was so self deluded that he thought that he was the good guy in all this."

Buffy frowned, "But why would he care? As you say, he's the Devil."

Twist smiled a crooked smile, "Something that very few people know, Lucifer actually had a soul. Now a real question for the ages is did that make him less evil or more evil?"

OXOXOX

Somewhere else. Somewhere very close.

The sun was going to set soon and Travers was watching over his teams of black ops as they geared up. He particularly liked the sounds of interlocking metal parts as they assembled their guns which they had smuggled into the country. They had smuggled them via a Mayan museum exhibit which had arrived from Brussels into LA.

He supposed that he should say a few words to his troops to make them feel important so he opened his mouth and this came out.

"Remember. The council orders the retrieval of an alive Slayer. Only use your firearms if absolutely necessary."

"I think we can handle one little girl." a cocky ex-SAS guy with very tidy blonde hair said.

"He's new." the smaller, stringier but vastly more experienced mercenary next to him said.

Travers nodded sagely, "He doesn't understand the importance or the power of the Slayer."

"You're spot on there." said the blonde, "But if you want this girl under lock and key, who am I to argue?"

Travers was about to tell him exactly who and what he was when a bookish, tweed wearing Watcher came up to his side and said "Erica is prepared."

"How has the Downing girl progressed?" Travers asked.

"Quite excessively so." the watcher said, with the slightly hint of fear, "She will be more than a match for them. I just worry for her health. We can't keep her at this level for much longer or her heart will give out or-or something else might happen to her."

"Let me worry about that. You just worry about your job."

The lesser Watcher cowered slightly and said "Yes, Sir."

OXOXOX

Willow and Tara's dorm room.

The two witches were sitting against the headboard on their bed, blankets wrapped around their naked bodies as they watched the TV perched on chair at the foot of the bed.

Their daytime sex session started out as Willow's attempt to lighten Tara's mood after seeing Twist. However, it seemed that Tara wasn't really that shaken up over it so the attention was unexpected but not unappreciated in the least.

Willow was resting her head on the top of Tara's chest with her eyes closed as Tara watched the movie on TV.

"I love how you snuggle up to me like that." said Tara.

Willow turned her head so Tara could she her smile and said "I love listening to your heartbeat."

"So that's why do that." Tara chuckled.

Some moans came from the TV and Tara said "Mmm. Shannon Elizabeth. The girl with two first names."

"So that's why American Pie is your favorite movie?" Willow chuckled.

"There is truly nothing wrong with that girl."

"Oh, here's the part where the guy.. does that thing." Willow laughed.

On screen, one of the characters prematurely ejaculated for the second time in under a minute.

"Hey, Willow." Tara said with a frown, "Can guys really do that?"

Willow snorted, "Not twice in a row I don't think."

"But they really can?" Tara asked with wide eyes, "You mean Oz has.. done that?"

Willow laughed, "I'm not going to tell you that. That's private."

Tara pursed her mouth then snuggled closer to Willow, "Please? I won't tell anyone. I promise."

"What's your fixation with Oz? Is this about what Faith said before? About how you haven't been with anyone else except me?"

"No, it's purely medical curiosity."

"Because I get that. You haven't been anywhere else and you're wondering what it would be like with someone else and maybe you're trying to work something into the conversation where we discuss adding another girl to the bed and I'm babbling."

"N-no no no. I wasn't thinking that. I couldn't get another girl, I mean, you could, you're hot and sexy but you wouldn't, would you? Because you're enough for me. No, more than enough. More than I can handle. Sometimes you're too much. But in a good way."

There was some silence as the two girls looked at each other awkwardly.

Willow babbled on more in that rambling neurotic way of hers, "If you wanted to try someone else, I'd be okay with it if you asked me first. No, not okay with it. But if it's killing you then I don't you want you to feel killed."

Tara blinked at Willow and asked "Really? You'd let me sleep with someone else. But no! I don't want that. I want you. Okay?"

Willow nodded but the two girls said nothing as the room fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"I um." Tara mumbled as she summoned the courage to say the truth, "Ah-I wouldn't mind sharing someone with you. N-not right now but some day maybe."

Willow smiled slightly and nodded slowly, "I'd like that. I just want you happy."

Tara let out an amused, content sigh as she rested her head down on Willow's shoulder, "I am happy, silly."

They watched the tape for a little longer until Tara frowned and asked "So has Oz ever done that?"

"Now to tell you the story behind that, I can't start at the end. I've start from the beginning." Willow told her lover, "You see, it all started at .. this one time at band camp."

Tara laughed her head off and fell off the bed.

"It's not that funny." Willow said with a smirk.

"Yes it is." Tara cried from the floor, "You did that so well. It's so eerie."

OXOXOX

Upon sunset, all of the Scoobies assembled at the magic box, despite Giles' insistence that Town Hall would be a better choice. Giles and Anya were already at the store because they worked there. Buffy and Tell came early, quickly followed by Willow and Tara.

Twist met Harmony and Xander for the first time. He seemed pleased with Harmony but he frowned when introduced to Xander.

After the frown he leant over to Anya and said "He doesn't strike me as the submissive type."

Anya rolled her eyes, "Oh, I stopped the whole domination routine when I became human."

Twist pouted, "Aww. That's a shame. You were so good at it."

Anya shrugged, "It just lost its appeal somehow. Although, we sometimes use handcuffs which are fun."

Xander frowned at this exchange and asked "Is being tactless a demon thing?" but got no answer.

After that, All the occupants of the Chase mansion arrived. Faith has nicknamed them as the "Chasers". They were Spike, Faith, Dawn, Kennedy and lastly, the Buffybot also known as Bottie AKA Faith's little sexmuppet.

Upon spotting Willow, Faith disentangled herself from the Bot and jumped into Willow's lap.

"It's my favorite rainbow." Faith cooed as Willow turned red with fluster.

"Faith. Get off me." Willow said as she tried to ply the Slayer off her.

"I just want you to know how much I'm enjoying Bottie. Have you been upgrading her?"

Willow blinked and shook her head then tried to squirm free some more.

Faith laughed and said "You know, you should be enjoying this more since you're the delegated lesbian in this hug fest. Seems quiet riot hasn't trained you enough yet."

"Quiet riot?" Tara asked.

Willow shrugged, "You are a bit quiet."

"But I bet you're a riot in bed." Faith smirked, "Hey, you want me to make out with your girlfriend. It'll be funny. Giles will do that thing with his glasses and Harmony will get mad at him for getting excited. You know she can smell sexual tension, right?"

Tara's eyes widened and Faith smirked meanly and said "That's right Honey Bunny. She knows you like you know who."

"Who who?" Willow asked, alarmed.

Faith kept smirking, "And she knows you like you know who too. In fact, not just them but a few other you know whos too. Oh, you should be ashamed. It's a good thing you're so cuddly or I'd be insulted."

"Grrk." was Willows cry of helplessness as it was muffled by Faith squishing her chest into Willow's face as she hugged her overly effusively. Although Faith was all but helpless against humans because of the chip they plugged into her brain, Willow still didn't like her. Faith had gotten a lot more comfortable around the red head, using the twisted logic that since she couldn't hurt Willow then Willow couldn't really hurt her back. Although she'd still like to stick sharp things in the witch, the chip actually acted as a nice comfort zone between the other Scoobies barbs.

Faith almost considered her chip a security blanket.

A get out of jail free card.

"Faith!" Buffy yelled, "Stop that. Get off her already before you make me come over there."

Faith pouted and showed Buffy a hands-off gesture but asked "Do you promise?"

Willow waited impatiently for her to get off her lap but Faith never did. So Willow yelped "Ow! Faith! Get off! You're hurting me!"

Faith chuckled, "That doesn't work strawberry shortcake. I think I'll just sit here a little longer. I just hate a cold seat."

As impossible as it was, Willow tried to ignore Faith and looked at the newcomers and frowned, saying "Kennedy's wearing suspenders again. Those are so nerdy."

"Says the girl who repairs my robot love slave?" Faith asked then tilted her head.

Tara tittered, "She's got a point."

Faith gave Tara a smile and yelled out to Kennedy "Hey, Kenny. Willow thinks you're a real nerd-slut."

Kennedy frowned at Faith but said nothing as Buffy yelled back in her place.

"Faith. Shut up for once. The grown ups are talking."

Faith glumly stopped talking and tried to figure out what the supposed grown ups were talking about.

Twist and Dawn were on one side of the shop. It looked like Twist was trying to get a rise out of Dawn while Buffy, Giles and Xander were on the other side of the shop by the counter, talking about something. By the looks Xander was sending Twist's way, Faith guessed they were talking about him.

"So, witchy-poos, what's with the story with Twistie?" Faith asked, "Did you order Tara a little something extra?"

"He's here to check on Dawn." Willow told Faith, "She's kind of his sister now. Sort of. You know."

Faith nodded then asked "So what's he been doing?"

Willow shrugged, "Nothing really. Just hanging out with Buffy all day."

A wicked smirk took over Faith's face and Tara said "It's not like that."

Faith kept smirking, "And you'd know this how? I just put two and two together and get five. It's not like Buffy can't afford a little boy love. Hell, he'd probably do it for free since she's like his sister-in-law now."

"Buffy would so not do that." Willow agreed.

Faith snorts, "Guess you don't know her like I do."

Willow looked at Faith oddly, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I swore I wouldn't talk about it." Faith replied then thought out loud, "I wonder what it's like. Paying for sex that is. Of course, I wouldn't need to."

"You're not that hot." Tara told Faith.

"Ffff!" Faith laughed, "Hell yeah I am. Besides, his clientele are probably the elderly and obese soccer moms."

Tara frowned and asked "Didn't Anya…?"

Faith shrugged and tilted her head back to where Anya and Harmony were talking with Kennedy and the bot. She called out "Hey, Anya. Did you pay to have sex with Twist?"

Anya nodded, "Yeah. A few times." then went back to the conversation with the others and wondered why everyone was staring at her, "What?"

"You paid to have sex with THAT?" Kennedy asked, pointing at Twist.

Twist had noticed this and was smirking back at them while Dawn was in the throes of dying from embarrassment.

"He's very good." Anya replied, "I mean, realllly good."

Twist enjoyed the compliment, "I do so love a satisfied customer."

"But not as good as me, right?" Xander asked.

Anya was about to answer then stopped, wondering if now was a time for tact or blatant insincerity

Xander looked insulted at her hesitation and Twist told Xander, "Hey, I'm a professional and I have been even before the foundation of Rome. I'm actually surprised she isn't rolling on the floor in laughter at the thought of comparing you to me."

"Xander is very good in bed." Anya defended her fiancée, "Just not as experienced as you."

Twist nodded, "Of course, because that would be humanly impossible. Even Methuselah only lived so long."

Xander looked at Twist oddly, "He can't be that good. Can he?"

Twist put his hands on his hips and said "Not only can I be that good, I am that good."

Dawn groaned, "Twist. Shut up. Please."

"He's insulting my manhood." Twist shot back.

"Anatomically speaking, you're not a man." Anya reminded Twist.

Twist nodded, "But I'm clearly more masculine than feminine."

Faith snorted, "You're no man. You're just a boy."

Anya shook her head, "No. I mean he's not male at all. He's a hermaphrodite."

Dawn groaned again, "Every damn time I introduce to you to some of my friends, THAT comes up."

Twist shrugged, "Unlike you, I'm not ashamed of how God made me."

Spike looked a bit closer at Twist and nodded, "Yeah. I see it now. Always thought you lot were a bit limp wristed."

"Whats a whatsit that Anya called him?" Harmony asked.

"It's something which is both male and female at the same time." Willow explained.

Harmony blinked at Twist then shrugged and said "Then that explains the smell. I thought I could smell a girl on him and voila, he is the girl."

Twist smirked at Harmony, "Actually, If I were you I'd go with your first assumption. I still haven't showered from that girl six hours ago."

"This is wicked funny." Faith chuckled.

"As wickedly funny as it is, why don't start on our patrols?" asked Giles, who had already cleaned his glasses five times over in the past minute.

"Aww but it's just getting fun." Faith whined, bouncing up and down and Willow's lap, her boobs jiggling in front of Willow's face.

Buffy walked calmly over to the tantrum and extracted Faith from the seat.

"Okay, Chasers. You've got the west side. We'll take east." Buffy informed them, "Think you can handle that?"

Kennedy sighed, "You could take the night off, you know. With the amount of action out there, we could patrol the whole town without a problem."

Spike chuckled, "Slayer's pet."

Buffy shook her head, "You couldn't without splitting up. I know you mightn't enjoy sharing your slaying duties but I'm more interested in your safety than your enjoyment. Now, you remembered your radio?"

Kennedy rolled her eyes, "Yes."

"If you have trouble, use it."

"Yes mom." Kennedy said again.

Buffy looked over to where Dawn was giving a Twist a hug before going off to patrol with the other Chasers and found Faith giving Tara a hug too. Spike nicked a spare stake from the stake barrel, Buffybot hugged an awkward Giles and then the Chasers started off on their patrol.

"They grow up so fast, don't they?" joked Twist as Buffy watched them go.

Buffy smirked at him then turned serious and asked of him "Okay, now tell them what you told me."

Twist frowned, "Which part?"

"About your Father, stupid." Buffy told Twist then she turned to everyone else in the room and said "Check this out guys. I asked Dawn about it and apparently it's true."

Twist sighed and stood back, "My father is the Devil."

"As in THE Devil." Buffy emphasized with a silly grin.

Xander frowned, "And how is this a good thing?"

Buffy pouted slightly, "Um. I guess it's not but isn't it just twisted?"

"What do you mean by the devil?" Giles asked.

Buffy pointed at her Watcher and said "See. That's the reaction I was expecting."

Anya sighed, "Buffy. The amount of times I've heard someone claim to be the devil or the greatest evil alive, I don't have enough hands to count them on."

"But in this case, it's true." Twist replied, "And for the record, I'm not my father. He was an asshole."

Willow shook her head, "I don't think the Devil himself ever actually existed, did he? The devil would probably be like the pantheons. They're not actually people. They're just, uh, like convergences of spiritual energies."

Twist rolled his eyes, "Oh please. I used to date a goddess back when they were popular. There's nothing convergent about them. You might have heard of Discordia?"

"You dated a god?" Anya asked, impressed but laughing slightly.

Twist reconsidered his wording and admitted "Maybe date is too strong a word."

"Discordia? You mean Discord?" Xander asked, "That freak with the leather and fishnet getup?"

Twist's eyes widened, "You've met her?"

"I saw her on the TV show." Xander explained then did a double take, "She actually dresses like that?"

Twist chuckled, "Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting there's that TV show about Hercules now. And yeah, she dressed like that. Why do you think I hanged around her so much? It wasn't for her personality."

Buffy stared at Twist, "And now you're saying that Hercules show is real?"

Twist shrugged, "I don't know about that. I don't watch it."

"But you knew Hercules?" Buffy asked, "And Hercules was a real person?"

Twist shook his head, "No. I didn't know Hercules. Tell did although they haven't talked to each other since the Bacchus wars. Don't ask."

Willow huffed out an exasperated breath, "I don't believe this. Next you'll be saying leprechauns exist."

"Actually they do." Twist said with a smirk.

"And you've had sex with them too, haven't you?" Willow asked back quickly, not buying this at all.

Twist kept smirking, "I get around."

"This is, quite frankly, preposterous." Giles said calmly, "You actually expect us to believe that you were cloned from the Devil himself?"

"It doesn't matter to me what you believe." Twist replied, "But this must be a bit scary for you, actually finding out that a lot of things you never believed in actually exist."

"What about unicorns?" Harmony asked enthusiastically, "They exist, right?"

"I've seen unicorns before." Anya told Harmony, "They're nothing special."

"Are you talking about the local variety?" Twist asked, "Because they're nothing more than Shetland ponies with horns on their heads. Something about Earth stunts their growth."

Then the front door opened and a large amount of men casually walked in like they owned the place.

"Excuse me, we're closed." Giles called and then frowned when he recognized the man in front, "Oh, Good evening, Travers. I hope you have a good reason for being here."

Buffy moved forward, with her arms crossed defensively, "He better or it's clobbering time."

Travers, the head of the watchers council, shook his head, "I do not believe so Miss Summers."

Then every man except Travers brought out a stubby submachine gun and pointed them at the Scoobies.

In an instant, Buffy assessed the situation. Eight men, eight guns, each gun holding around ten or more bullets, she was nine feet to the closest one, each were separated by a foot or more.

They weren't shooting right now but any attack on them would guarantee at least someone she knew dying.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Buffy groaned, "What do you think you're going to get from doing this?"

"What belongs to us." Travers replied, "The Slayer. While we hold you here, more men will be outside tranquilizing the Slayer Kennedy. There's really nothing you can do to stop this."

"Why would you want her anyway?" Giles asked, "I think it's obvious she wants nothing to do with you."

"But we need her." Travers replied, "And as regretful as this business is, we must have her. She will be taken back to London where we bestow upon her the Poenicus gyve."

Giles mouth dropped open in shock, "I'm appalled you would even consider that! That spell was banned centuries ago for very specific reasons."

"What's the peanut givey?" Buffy asked Giles quickly.

"It's a kind of torture method." Anya replied, "You kind of split a persons soul into two parts. One part you hypnotize, the other part you paralyze. What you get is someone who is imprisoned in their own body, totally aware but unable to resist your commands. It's a rare spell that went out of fashion when the library of Alexandria was burnt. I don't get why the watchers would use it on a Slayer."

"The feeling of being suffocated within their own body brings a Slayer's strength and agility up to the peak levels." Giles informed her, "Although, how the ancient watchers discovered that, I can only guess. And I can only guess why Travers would stoop that low."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Travers replied.

"I can't believe I once respected you." Giles said with utter contempt.

"Just out of curiosity. How many men did you send after Kennedy?" asked Xander.

"Ten." Travers said easily.

Giles and Buffy looked at each other and both started chuckling.

"You only sent ten men?" Giles asked.

"Ten men and a specialist that we trained specifically for this task." Travers replied then frowned, "Why are you finding this funny?"

"You should've brought more men." Xander told them, now laughing too.

Still frowning, Travers shook his head, "I didn't see the need. Since the only missing members from your sick little group are Kennedy and that monster, William the Bloody, then half that amount of men should be enough. In fact, your vampire is probably draining her right now and saving us the hassle of reining her in."

"Are these guys actually watchers?" Twist asked, confused.

"They're Watchers." Xander told him, "You can tell by the tweed."

"And the fact that they're condescending pillocks who don't know their face from their arse." Giles added.

Twist frowned, "But aren't they supposed to be on your side?"

"It's complicated." Buffy said with a half-hearted smile.

"And that is the demon, Tell?" asked Travers, "He certainly doesn't look like much."

Twist was about to tell him where to get off when Buffy shook her head and said "Don't be mad at the stupid man, Tell. He's just angry because he never got laid in college."

Twist tilted his head curiously at Buffy then smiled at Travers, "Yeah, that's right. I'm Tell. I'm a real bad ass. I eat coffin nails for breakfast and wash it down with a warm mug of broken glass. I'm more man than this mountebank will ever be."

Travers sneered at Twist, "Yes. Very mature. If I had my way, we would kill you right now before you can cause any more trouble. In fact, I regret that the council didn't decide to kill you all for good and have this circus finished with."

"Out voted?" Giles asked with a knowing grin, "But really Travers, are you that blind to what we're doing here?"

"What you're doing!" Travers scowled threateningly, "What you're doing is providing safe harbor to rogue slayers and vampires and even demons. The fact that a watcher, even a disgraced sacked watcher is bedding a vampire makes me sick to my stomach. I knew you'd never amount to anything, Rupert Giles, but I never knew you would fall this far."

"Hey!" Harmony yelled, "Hey, that's not fair!"

Giles stood in front of Harmony and held her to stop her from doing anything that would get herself killed, saying "Harmony. Just calm down."

"That's his floozy?" one of the gun wielding thugs asked, "Now I get why he switched teams."

The one next to him laughed, "She's an eye popper alright. Say old man, how much does that bloodsucker cost you? Do you pay her per night or for each time?"

Harmony growled and rushed them, only to be held back by the combined strength of Giles, Buffy and even Xander. It was still a struggle though.

"Harm, you idiot! They've got guns!" Xander yelled at her.

"So?" She yelled back, "They won't kill me."

"They'll kill us though." Buffy grunted and Harmony slackened her push and instead, decided to just glare at the laughing soldiers to no effect.

"They're mercenaries, aren't they?" Twist asked Travers.

Travers nodded, "Yes. They are. Due to the last three Slayers turning rogue, the council has needed to rely on mercenaries to have its will enforced. It has taken not a small fortune."

"So they're whores then?" Twist asked, making Travers look at him strangely.

"Let me explain." Twist offered, "You pay them money and they do what you ask."

Twist pointed one of the men out and said "In fact, that guy would let you give him it from behind for only a hundred dollars. As long as you were protected, of course. After he got crabs from a girl in Panama, he's been a bit paranoid of communicable diseases. That's why he suddenly stopped using public bathrooms."

Most of the soldiers stopped laughing and looked at the man in question. One of the other soldiers laughed and said "You can't expect us to believe that. He's SAS. He's a 'ard man."

Twist shook his head and replied "You shouldn't talk. You'd do take it from Travers here for half that. In fact, you'd do it for free if he threw in a girl and a pair of smokes."

"The hell I would." he laughed nervously.

Twist smirked, "Funny you should say hell. You might just be headed to hell after having sex with that guy's sister."

Twist nodded his head towards one of the other soldiers who just frowned and asked the first soldier "You had sex with Gwen? You could've told me that. I wouldn't jump on you for it."

Twist shook his head and said "No. Not Gwen. You've got more than one sister, don't you? A younger sister? A much much younger sister?"

The soldier with two sisters shook his head, "No. He wouldn't do it with Ruby. She's just a kid."

"Didn't you ever notice how she acts a bit strange when her favorite uncle comes over to visit?" Twist asked suggestively, "She just loves her uncle so, doesn't she?"

The two soldiers Twist was talking about looked at each other, one with anger and one with fear.

The fearful one put one hand up defensively and said "It's not what you think. She came on to me."

The angry one leveled his firearm up but was quickly tackled by the two soldiers on each side of him.

"BASTARD!" he shrieked as he struggled to keep his gun, "I'll fuggin' kill you!"

One of the calmer mercenaries stepped forward and surgically cold cocked him with the butt of his submachine gun. The man turned into a rag doll and the two soldiers on both sides of him fell down. The cold cocker spun around and pointed his gun directly at Twist and said "One more word out of your cakehole, you demon tosspot, and I'll you'll be breathing through the hole in your head."

Twist shrugged and said "I'm just surprised you didn't let him kill the pedophile. It's not like the world needs any more of them, is there?"

"I'm onto you. You're a demon." He smirked, "Of course you'd try to hump with our heads."

"You know what I mean." Twist persisted, "You still remember her, don't you? Every one has forgotten her but you remember. She was so alive, so strong. You were just a kid when she was taken but you thought you were in love. She thought she was in love too. Maybe she was."

The soldier had lost his calm and instead was looking at Twist in confusion and asked "What? How? You're reading my mind, aren't you?"

"I can read your pain." Twist replied, "It's screaming out loud to me. You loved her and they took her away from you. They took her and twisted her into a cold hard tool of destruction. And that one man, the man who was supposed to take care of her, he abused that power and used her."

"Shut up." the soldier commanded, now pointing the gun again.

"How could they do that?" Twist asked, "They were charged to guide her and provide for her but they defiled her body and broke their spirit like so much kindling. In the end, I bet she welcomed death."

"Cushing, what is this baulderdash he's ranting?" Travers asked the soldier

"It's nothing." Cushing shot back, "It's all malarkey."

"He was her watcher, wasn't he?" Twist asked, piecing together what he was reading off the soldier, "And she was the Slayer."

BANG!

Twist spun and thudded against the floor.

It wasn't Cushing who had fired but Travers who was now holding out a small automatic pistol complete with a smoking barrel.

On the floor, he got up on all fours then slowly stood back up, holding his hand to his cheek where a bullet had torn through.

"You swore that when you became a watcher, you'd stop this madness. Didn't you?" Twist asked Cushing, "But the madness just keeps on coming."

BANG!

Travers shot Twist again and Twist almost fell over again.

"Hush, damn you!" Travers shouted at the demon.

"All those slayers. Who knows what happened to them." Twist kept talking, "A watcher may watch the Slayer but who was watches the watchers?"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Now Twist was on the floor again, three fresh angry red stains blossoming on his shirt.

"And here you are, in person, about to do god knows what to another Slayer." Twist said, his voice raspy.

BANG! BANG! Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.

Twist forced himself to chuckle at the watcher who was now standing over him with an empty gun and he said "I think you're out of bullets."

Travers stepped forward and stood on Twist's throat, "Die damnit! Why won't you just die?"

Gasping for breath, Twist rasped out, "Shooting me won't make you any less wrong."

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter.


	3. Conditional friend

OXOXOX

The "Chasers" were already half way through their patrol and it had been pretty dull. They had stumbled upon some allied vampires and were invited to warehouse rave but beyond that the town was asleep.

Since Xander had concrete poured over the hellmouth, Sunnydale was quickly losing its status as a deathtrap. Xander had even gone the distance and posted some full size election style posters around Sunnydale claiming responsibility for the plummeting death toll. His motto was "Vote Harris for a safer, sunnier Sunnydale."

Before long, it seemed that someone was making a full time job out of vandalizing these posters. Hitler mustaches, horns, goatees and missing teeth were the norm but recently it had been taken up another notch when the vandal started pasting cardboard cutouts to the road side advertisements.

As of yet, there are no suspects but Xander had the Sunnydale PD's assurance that it was their top priority. Xander rested easy in the knowledge that this was local cop double-talk for "We won't bother looking."

"Why is Xander wearing a sombrero and having sex with a tiny horse in that picture?" Bottie asked innocently as she looked up at a poster.

"Actually, it's a burro." Faith corrected her, "You can tell because of the little saddle bags it's wearing."

Dawn, who was standing next to Bottie just rolled her eyes but said nothing.

Bottie frowned as her circuits furiously tried to keep up with the conversation, "Don't horses wear saddle bags too?"

Faith shook her head, "Nah. That fashion went out in the dark ages. Horses wouldn't be caught dead in saddle bags anymore."

"Okay. Why is Xander wearing a sombrero and having sex with a tiny burro in that picture?" asked Bottie, almost identically to her first question.

Faith shrugged, "Why don't you ask him next time you see him?"

Buffy smiled, "I will. Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome." Faith smiled back.

A distance away from those three, Kennedy and Spike were walking together.

Kennedy groaned and lolled her head back to look at the moon.

"I'm so bored." she complained, "There's nothing to kill in this town. I can't even kill time here."

"I know what you mean, pet." said Spike, "Usually at this time of the year we'd be neck deep in some big bad trying to muscle their way into Sunnydale but this year? Nothing. It's disgraceful."

"There's no hellmouth to attract the evil. That's the problem."

Spike shook his head, "But this is Sunnydale. It shouldn't even need a hellmouth. They should just know that I'm here and that's all they need to know."

Kennedy looked seriously at Spike for a second and asked "Spike. Can I ask a personal question?"

Spike shrugged, "Sure. Might not answer it though."

"Why did you kill Drusilla? I thought you loved her."

Spike didn't answer and Kennedy apologized, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked that."

"No. It's okay." Spike told her.

Some time went passed and Dawn looked at Spike again, "Umm."

Spike sighed, "Why did I kill Dru? It's a funny thing. I thought I hated her. I wanted to be angry at her for what she did to Dawn."

"To Dawn?" Kennedy asked weirdly, "Really?"

"Hey. Dawn's my friend." Spike said defensively, "I see that now. Almost everyone here in Sunnydale is my friend. They might not treat me with much respect or even like me but they're my friends. Except Harris and that filthy harlot, Faith. Uh, don't tell her I said that. And Buffy gets up my nose too but them aside, I get treated better by everyone here than I've ever gotten treated by the vampires and demons of the world. I mean comparatively, you understand."

Kennedy shook her head, "No. Not really. I don't understand."

"When I'm with other vampires, I'm the big bad. Everyone does what I say because I'm the big bad. I'm the king. But everyone hates me and they're only doing what I say because if they don't I kill them. Pure and simple. Whenever a vamp thinks they've got the better of me, they try to dispose me. Strange this is here, I've got no power at all but everyone treats me okay."

"Really?" Kennedy asked.

Spike nodded, "Sure. When I first got chipped, I spent a few weeks tried down in bathtubs and deck chairs but after that, it's been peaches."

Kennedy nodded slowly, not quite buying this logic, "So you killed Drusilla because she would try to kill you?"

"Drusilla kill me? Nah. I guess not. See, I wanted to hate her. I don't know why now but I was really trying to compel myself to hurt her. At the time it made sense to hate her but I couldn't. Then when I saw again, in the middle of the fight, I saw her as she really was. A scared, tortured little girl. In that instant, I realised that I should've staked her a long time ago. Not because I hate her but because maybe then, she could find some sort of peace."

"That's kind of romantic .. and psycho at the same time."

Spike sniffed and smirked at the same time, "Well, I am a vampire, luv. Besides, if I didn't kill her, she'd probably try to destroy the world again without my supervision… Uh, do you smell that?"

Kennedy took a whiff of the air, "Smell what?"

"Smells like magic." Spike said with a troubled crease to his brow, "Run!"

Kennedy's head whipped around to where she spotted two men lining up rifles from behind the cover of a parked car.

Then Kennedy ran for the other three in their group, Spike following her from behind, not as worried about the guns.

As Kennedy and Spike ran, little hisses passed by them through the air, imbedding into the walls of nearby buildings. Considering they were getting shot at, Kennedy expected more sound to their impending doom.

"Guns!" Kennedy yelled to the three up ahead, "Get down!"

Faith hit the dirt and Buffybot crouched low but not as much as Faith who was practically eating the pavement. Dawn frowned and did nothing.

"In there." Dawn directed Faith, gesturing towards a nearby alleyway.

Kennedy and Spike scooted along. Dawn noted that obviously one of them was the target of the attack since no one was shooting in their direction yet.

Then something thudded into her arm.

She looked down and pulled out a tranquilizer dart.

"They're using darts." Dawn told the others as they moved into the alley way, "They want us alive."

"They're probably human too." Spike hissed, "So I can't touch them."

"Damnit!" Faith swore, "The first good bit of action for weeks and they're human!"

Faith kicked a door open to a warehouse and everyone rushed in, the hunters outside quickly gaining on them.

Once inside, Faith dropped a large metal crate in front of the door which would at least slow their pursuers. Kennedy was on the radio, calling for help furiously.

"There's no answer." Kennedy said, frazzled, "Something must've happened to them."

"Ken, you've been shot." Faith yelled, pulling a tranquilizer dart out of their arm.

"Feels like a wasp sting." Kennedy said, absent-mindedly rubbing her arm.

"You gonna be okay?" Faith asked the other Slayer.

Kennedy nodded, "Yeah. Just a little woosy. Hey, Spike. How on earth do you smell magic?"

"Dark magic smells like old yaks cheese." Dawn replied quickly, "And it's getting stronger. now I can smell it too. We need to get out of here."

"Why?" Kennedy asked, "They're not even following us."

Then a flashbang grenade was thrown through an open window on the other side of the small warehouse. Faith had pulled Kennedy behind some crates before it even had a chance to explode in mid-air.

"Fuck!" Faith shouted over the din of the bang and the others scrambling for cover.

Then the roller doors into the warehouse were blown inwards.

Through the coughing and through the smoke, the Chasers looked into the man made hole and saw a teenage girl with tightly bound black hair, very white skin and more importantly two black balls where her eye balls should be.

Kennedy blinked and said "Erica! Erica Downing!"

"Hi Kennedy." the witch replied, "Long time, no see."

Behind Erica, armed men tried to enter the warehouse but she waved a hand and they came up against a magical field which barred their access.

"Just leave it to me, boys." Erica said with a smile, "I'm gonna to go to town on her."

"You know this chick?" Faith asked.

Kennedy nodded, embarrassed, "I dated her once."

"And don't we both regret that?" Erica asked, "Tell you what, Kenny, for old times sake, if you come peacefully, I won't have to beat the snot out of you."

Kennedy frowned, "The dark eyes of doom are new but what makes you think you can take me?"

"I think you should leave." said Bottie added to the conversation, "I don't want to hurt you."

Erica squinted at Bottie and laughed, "Hey. You're Buffy, aren't you? You really are as short as they say you are."

The witch looked over the others in the room and said "And you're Buffy's sister. I can't believe she lets you out at night in this town. And you're William the Bloody. And.. Hold on. You're supposed to be dead."

Faith gulped, "Umm. I don't know what you're talking about."

Kennedy laughed, "Relax, Faith. We're Slayers. What's she going to do?"

Faith blinked at her sister Slayer and asked "Didn't you see that force field? She's got magic, you twit."

"Yes. Yes, I do." Erica said with a wicked smile, "And since you're still alive, Faith, You'll come too."

"The hell I will!" Faith said, running for the door she came through.

Before Faith even reached the door, Erica reached out with a hand and shouted "Prae-mium!"

The air in front of Faith exploded with a blinding flash. When everyone looked again, Faith was on the ground, groaning and barely conscious.

"Okay. Let's get her." Kennedy told the others, Spike giving her a weird look.

Erica took the next move though, pulling out a handful of darts out of a pouch and said "Pulsus."

The darts flew out of her hands. Spike and Kennedy dove for cover while Dawn and the Bot charged forwards.

"Offensus." Erica commanded and lightning shot out of her hands, having no visible effect on the two non-humans.

Instead, they both took her and pinned her hands against the wall.

"Offensus!" Erica shouted again and more coarse magical lightning spurted out of her hands, flowing over both Dawn and Bottie.

"You need new tricks." Dawn told the witch as she brought her fist back to knock her out. Before she struck, Erica brought her knee up and hit Dawn on the chin.

Dawn took the hit and didn't go down but lost her grip on the witches arm. Using this to her advantage, Erica hit Dawn with a super powered backhand which propelled her high up in the air only to hit one of the rafters and fall back to ground.

Buffybot watched this in surprise then turned back to Erica and tried to punch her too. Erica caught the bots fist and held it, straining to keep it.

"Goddamn!" the witch hissed, "You're stronger than you look."

Since both her hands were in use, the witch moved forward and head butted Bottie and only stunned her self.

By now, Kennedy was limping towards the fight, one of her legs having gotten hit by more than a few of Erica's darts.

When Erica saw her coming she spun off the wall, almost dancing with Bottie, and gave Kennedy a back kick which sent her flying through a wooden crate.

"You are hurting my friends. Please stop." Bottie told Erica, "I don't want to hurt you."

Erica bared her teeth, said "But I want to hurt you, bitch!" and swept Bottie's legs out from under her. When she hit the ground, Erica straddled her and started pounding on her face while the bot tried to brace itself against the attack.

From behind, Spike pulled on Erica's jacket, lifting her off the robot. Erica barely shrugged in his direction and he was knocked up and over a nearby crate.

The Buffybot scissored her legs out and tripped Erica up then tried straddling her in the same fashion the witch had done.

But Erica just pushed back at the robot and she skidded off her, along the ground and thudded against the wall.

"Hey bitch!" Faith yelled and caught Erica's attention, "You want to try that again?"

Erica brought up her hands and Faith ran to the side, screaming and cursing as she did.

All around Faith, crates and chunks of wall exploded, until she accidentally ran out into a large empty space with nothing to hide behind.

"If you wont come peacefully then I'm afraid you must die." Erica said through gritted teeth.

"I've just got one thing to say." Faith said with her hands up, "Decoy!"

Erica spun around in time to have Dawn tackle her to the ground, Dawn's hands wrapped around both sides of her head as if she was trying to squeeze Erica's head.

Erica brought back a fist to knock Dawn off her but then her eye's flashed white and her back arched in agony.

Dawn's eyes rolled back into her head and both their mouths were forced open by unseen fingers. For five long seconds, a dark oily energy spouted out of Erica's mouth and flew into Dawn's. Once it was over, Dawn slumped to the side and gagged.

"Dawn. You okay?" Faith asked, having watched the whole thing.

Dawn nodded, "Fine. I just hate doing that."

Then the ten men who were previously trapped outside, ran inside with tranquilizer rifles blazing.

Dawn and Faith rushed them too, Faith with her eyes closed and screaming her lungs out as her chip fired off.

Dawn came out with a spinning flying kick, knocking one clean out while Faith just shoulder barged blindly into the crowd and knocked several of them off their feet.

The soldiers quickly overwhelmed Dawn and Faith but then Bottie and Kennedy picked one soldier up each and threw it into the still tightly packed group.

Pulling rifles clear, they started firing. Faith was still rolling on the ground in agony so she got a few darts but Kennedy pulled a dazed soldier in front of her and used him as an effective human shield. Dawn and Bottie were now both acting as pin cushions for the semi-automatic tranquilizer rifles, neither caring if they got shot or not.

Kennedy, Buffybot and Dawn pushed the rifle wielding soldiers into a corner and just beat into the superior numbers. One of the last conscious soldiers pulled out a knife and imbedded it in Botties center mass but that only made Bottie glare at him. Kennedy tapped him on the jaw and he went down.

"Thanks Kennedy." Bottie said with a grin as she wrenched out the knife.

"Uh. Yeah. Sure." Kennedy replied, shaking her head to keep it clear.

"We need to get out of here." Spike mumbled from behind the girls, "Hey, where's Faith?"

Dawn frowned and looked down at the mass of bruised, beaten and groaning bodies on the floor, "I think she's under these guys."

"That's so like her." Kennedy chuckled with a dopey smile, obviously becoming affected by the darts.

OXOXOX

Back at the magic box,

The Scoobies had been assigned to the middle of the room, around a large wooden table while the other soldiers hung back a distance.

Twist was in a chair next to Buffy and having his injuries tended to by Willow.

She leant over and asked him "Why did you do that?"

"Because they called Harmony a whore. I wanted to get one back." Twist replied as Willow carefully pulled a bullet out of his shoulder. The watchers had decided that it wasn't too much to ask to give them simple medical equipment to treat their pet demon, so after they took out the scalpel and searched the medical kit for anything suspicious they handed it over.

Harmony snorted, "Why would you be mad? You are one."

Twist shook his head, "No, it's not really that, it's just I'm not - AARH, damnit! Don't stick that thing there!"

Willow flinched, "I'm sorry. I've never had to remove bullets before."

Harmony sighed and told Willow, "Scoot over. Let me do it. You look like you're going to faint any minute now."

Willow looked at Harmony seriously for a second then scooted over. Harmony took up the tweezers and started working on Twist.

"So you were saying?" Buffy prompted him.

"Oh, right." Twist remembered, "Sorry. I was just distracted by the intense pain. Um, yeah. As I was saying, I'm not a fighter. If you try to go up against those guys, I won't be much use. But if I can make them doubt themselves or even get them to shoot all their bullets at me instead of on you then maybe you've got a better chance."

"And you care?" Tara asked skeptically.

Twist frowned, "Buffy is my extended family now so yes, I care. I can't have her dying on the first day I meet her. It just wouldn't do."

Harmony pulled out a bullet and Twist complimented her, "Hey, you're not bad at that. Have you ever thought of becoming a nurse?"

Scandalized, Willow said "But I'm the medic here. I use high tech medical equipment and everything and-and she's a vampire. She's an insensitive murder machine. No offense, Harmony."

"None taken." Harmony said with a fake smile, "Say, how's your neck feel from that time I bit you?"

Willow rubbed her neck subconsciously and Harmony went back to her amateur surgery.

"Did you know that Florence Nightingale founded nursing as a profession after she was turned?" Twist asked the group.

Buffy raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Giles hemmed, "Florence Nightingale was a strange one. It's thought that by insisting on sterile conditions and a more balanced and regular diet, she would heighten the quality of her patient's blood."

"Oh yeah. That makes totally sense." Harmony said, agreeing, "Like once, back in my evil days, one of my minions nabbed a coke pusher who had wandered over here from LA. He tasted so bad we just let him go."

"Whoa. Hold on there. You're saying Florence Nightingale was a vampire?" Willow asked, "But wouldn't that make her evil?"

"Some people, when they turn, they just keep going on with their lives as if nothing happened." said Harmony, "Like in LA, there's supposed to be this vampire who's worked nights in an S-mart since the seventies."

"That's like the vampire fisherman in Japan." said Anya, "He's lived completely on raw fish since he was turned during the Edo period. When you ask him why he does it, he just says he likes fishing. It's peaceful."

"So he was a fisherman when he was alive and after he was turned he just kept doing it?" Buffy asked skeptically.

Anya shook her head, "Oh no. He was a blacksmith when he was alive. He fished in his spare time."

"Hey. This is pretty." one of the goon squad said, picking out a blood pearl necklace from behind a display case, "How much is it."

Giles smiled meanly, "It's only four dollars."

"Put that down!" Travers scolded them and he pulled out a ringing cellphone from inside his jacket and talked into it, "Travers here."

He quietly listened but a mask of rage slowly scrunched its way onto his face.

"You what!" Travers yelled into the tiny phone, "This is not acceptable! – What do you mean there were three Slayers? There's only two alive at this point in time and I'm looking at one right now! – What are you talking about? – That's.. Stay EXACTLY where you are. I'll come to you."

Travers angrily shoved the phone back in the inside pocket of his jacket and addressed his troops, "You two, follow me."

The two nearest soldiers followed Travers out the front door and the Scoobies looked at each other with smiles.

"Looks like Kennedy got away." Buffy was the first to say it.

"But they know about Faith now." Xander said with a sigh.

"Doesn't make a difference." Buffy said dismissively, "We'll just explain to them that Faith is off limits, just like Kennedy."

"Actually it does." Willow disagreed, "Faith's all evil, remember? I don't think they'll just let this go."

Buffy shrugged, "Then we'll just explain how we gave her the clockwork orange treatment. It's no biggie."

"Hold on there." one of the council's goons asked, "Are you talking about that Slayer called Faith?"

Buffy nodded with a bright smile, "Yes. She didn't die after all. We've let her hide out here all this time."

That soldier groaned, "Oh, that's just brill, that is. Which of you smegheads thought that would be a good idea?"

"Um. Me." Buffy admitted, "And just what is a smeghead? I mean, what exactly is a smeg? It sounds like a form of measurement."

"Before they answer that. I'd like to give them an offer." Xander butted in, "Okay boys. You can put down your guns now or you can die."

Many of the Scoobies and all of the mercenaries looked at Xander with confusion.

"What are you blathering about?" one of the soldiers asked.

Xander hemmed and pulled out a walky talky and spoke into it, "Could you please turn your lights on now?"

Through the closed blinds at the front of the store, red and blue lights flashed on and off from outside.

"Ya-You called the cops?" one of the soldiers yelled at Xander, "You pillock! You hoary stinking armpit!"

"Now now, names hurt people more than we would like to think." Xander said as if he was a disappointed parent, "The local department isn't known for holding their fire. But I'll tell you what. You put your guns down now and I'll just have you deported back to the country of your origin. I'm the mayor so I think I could convince the justice system not to press charges. Does that sound fair?"

"Check how many there are." Cushing mumbled to the one next to him.

The other soldier moved to the blinds, pulled one back, looked through it and hissed "Sssoddit. That's a lotta ham."

"How many?" Cushing asked.

The soldier by the window thought about how to explain it then said "You know on Terminator 2, where the terminator goes crazy with a grenade launcher and a vulcan? Somewhere around that many cars are out there."

There was an empty pause and Cushing asked "Deportation? Is that all?"

Xander nodded, "That's all."

"Despite how it looks, we are still all on the same side." said Giles.

Cushing didn't like this but he turned to the others and said "Alright. Give me your guns."

"Have you gone daft?" the nearest soldier asked, "You can't trust them!"

"It's not about trust." Cushing replied, "What are we going to do? Hold them hostage? They have Swat down from LA in under two hours. And if we get past them, we'll have to contend with FBI and NSA. You don't hold a mayor hostage in the US and get away clean. Hell, even coastguard will be on our back on our way out of this hole and those guys are stark raving mad."

This settled it for the other soldiers and they gave him their guns which he then placed on the table for the Scoobies to confiscate.

Xander held up the radio and said into it, "Hold your fire, Kate. They've given up and we're coming out."

"Roger." Kate Lockleys voice came through the radio, followed by a bunch of groans coming from outside.

Xander smiled warmly at Cushing and said "Let's go, shall we?"

OXOXOX

The Chase Mansion.

The Chasers stumbled into the lounge room, Kennedy and Faith both being supported by Buffybot while Dawn helped Spike in.

Once they were inside, Dawn helped Spike into a chair and then walked off across the expansive lounge to the "security" station. She unlocked a panel and pushed the big red button inside it and large metal panels slid over all the windows, locking the mansion down.

When she got back, everyone was pulling darts out of themselves, even the Bot.

"Bloody hell, Kennedy." Spike laughed, "And I thought my ex was crazy."

"She's not normally like that." Kennedy said with concern, "Dawn, what did you do to her back there?"

"You could call it a magical enema." Dawn chuckled, "Don't worry, cutie. She'll be fine in a few days. Or weeks. Months at the latest."

"Ow!" Faith yelled as she pulled out one of darts, "Some guy shot me point blank, six times in my right buttcheek."

"What was in those darts?" Kennedy asked, confused, "Cos they weren't very good."

"Maybe they screwed up the recipe." Spike guessed as he took out a gin from the lounge fridge and took a swig.

"Toss me a vodka, would you?" Faith asked and Spike took a bottle out of the fridge and gently passed it to her.

Faith was soon knocking back vodka while Kennedy looked on and asked "Is it a healthy idea to mix drinks and tranquilizer darts?"

"I feel pretty good about it." Spike replied, not caring.

"I have a power leak." Bottie said with a sad look, "I need to close down now."

"You go do that." Faith told the bot.

"Can you tell Willow that she needs to fix me?" Bottie asked hopefully.

"Yeah yeah, sure." Faith said dismissively, "Power leak. Have tomato head fix you. Gotcha covered."

Bottie smiled and said "Thank you. You are a good friend. I will go to bed now."

Dawn wandered over to fridge and took a bottle of Jim Bean, totally at random, opened it and took a sip of it.

"Eewwer!" Dawn said, repulsed by the taste.

Kennedy chuckled, "Dawn. What are you doing? You don't drink."

"Yes, I do." Dawn snapped back, "I drink lots of things. You wanna see?"

Then she tilted her head back and chugged down the entire bottle without stopping. After she finished she closed her eyes and swayed left and right for a while.

Faith laughed, "Damn! Do that again."

"Again?" Dawn asked, "Okay madalokay."

She took out a bottle of tequila this time, opened it up and started chugging it down.

"That's impressive." Spike said, half way through, "It almost makes alcoholism a spectator sport."

After completing the bottle, Dawn swayed back and laughed out loud.

"My tummy feels funny and I feel all floaty." she said, "How come Kennedy's not joining in?"

"Cos I'm too tired to get drunk." Kennedy explained, "And you're drunk. Aren't you?"

"She's so tanked." Faith laughed, "She's instantly drunk. That's so crazy."

"Hey. You wanna see something cool?" Dawn asked then poked out her tongue to show a metal stud imbedded in it.

"I've got one of those two." Kennedy pointed out.

Dawn chuckled deliriously and fall back against the wall then quickly bounded back up, "Oh, hey! You wanna see something cool?"

Faith snorted, "Yeah sure. Shock away."

Dawn turned towards the entertainment system, crouched down and pulled out a drawer for videos. She unhinged the drawer from the cabinet and pulled it out. Then she looked in the hole and pulled out a DVD case and showed it to everyone as if they could read it from where they were seated.

No one knew what it was until Faith's eye's shot wide open and Faith yelled "DAWN! What are you doing with THAT!"

"I brought it months back." Dawn said, rolling her eyes.

Faith jumped out of her place on the couch and grabbed for the DVD case. Before she could however, Dawn tossed it to Spike and tackled Faith to the ground.

Spike caught the case and looked at it and he laughed.

"What is it?" Kennedy asked as Faith and Dawn rolled around on the ground.

Spike tossed it to her and Kennedy gasped, "OH MY GOD! Is that FAITH?"

Faith eventually kicked Dawn off and grabbed the DVD from Kennedy.

Kennedy was still a little shocked but she asked "Faith. What are you doing in a porno?"

"I needed some spare cash." Faith said dismissively, "Look, I'm too tired to harass Dawn about this so I think I'll just go to bed. You'll check with Buffy, right?"

Kennedy nodded, "Yeah. I'm on it."

Spike heaved himself up and said "And that's my cue to leave. I think that blue movie was the high point of this afternoon."

"I bet it's really popular with watchers." Dawn tittered, "They like to watch, you know."

"God. You are so drunk." Kennedy sighed as Spike left the room, "And why would YOU have a movie of Faith having sex."

"Because I am Lucy-fuck. Ruler of the infernal paradiseses… ises." Dawn said as she took another bottle from the fridge, this time leaving the fridge open.

"Okay. That's enough of that." Kennedy said, standing up to take the bottle off Dawn.

Dawn struggled and pushed Kennedy and they both ended up on the couch, Dawn lying on top of Kennedy.

Dawn smiled as she looked down at Kennedy and said "This feels good."

Kennedy frowned more as Dawn opened up the non-descript bottle of liquor. It was probably something Spike had bootlegged into Sunnydale.

Now straddling Kennedy, Dawn flicked her head back and took a slug of it.

"Wow. That was strong. Makes me hot and tingly inside." Dawn said as her hands stroked her belly and moved up, over her breasts, hiking her top up as she went.

While biting down on one of the rings on her bottom lip, Dawn giggled and put the bottle to Kennedy's mouth. Kennedy pushed it away, saying "Dawn. This really isn't the time to play around."

"Who's playing around? Come on. Take a hit. Just one. For me, baby."

Kennedy sighed and took the bottle. She knocked it back like she was drinking mineral water and Dawn kept it upright. Almost instantly, Kennedy's eye shot wide open and she spat the poison out.

Dawn laughed as Kennedy sputtered for breath. The bottle dropped to the floor, its contents spilling liberally onto the carpet.

While Kennedy tried to recover from drinking the wheat equivalent of wood alcohol, Dawn moved it and started licking her neck.

"Dawn?" Kennedy asked, confused and then Dawn took her face in her hands and kissed her fully and passionately.

Kennedy moaned and reciprocated as Dawn unclipped the Slayer's suspenders and unzipped her fly. Then Dawn growled as she tore the other girls shirt straight off her body.

Kennedy gasped in surprise at this and when Dawn dove at her chest, licking her sternum as her hands snaked around to unhook her bra.

"Dawn. Wait." Kennedy said sleepily.

"Can't." Dawn said throatily, "I need you so bad. It's been so long."

"No." Kennedy mumbled as Dawn suckled on a fresh cut on Kennedy's bare shoulder.

"So sweet." Dawn mumbled as the girl beneath her went limp.

Dawn held her up and trailed kisses up the girls neck, meeting her mouth again. But this time, she didn't kiss back and Dawn stopped.

"Kennedy." Dawn whispered then shook her, "Kennedy! Wake up!"

Since the other girl didn't, Dawn dropped her on the couch to sleep and grunted in disappointment.

"Got no endurance." Dawn mumbled and looked glumly around the room.

OXOXOX

Continued in next chapter


	4. In the sky with diamonds

OXOXOX

Faith's room AKA strangleland.

Faith flinched awake to the sound of clattering glass and found herself naked, lying on her bed. That wasn't too strange for her but the fact that Dawn was in her room, also naked and raiding her liquor supply was. There were even a few empty bottles of mineral water on the ground.

"Dawn?" asked Faith then her eye's shot wide open when she realized something wasn't right with her body.

She looked down at her crotch and realized she had a penis. Faith's eyes hot wide open when she realized it was almost a foot long and that she hadn't swapped bodies with Xander again. She was in her own body but she had guy parts.

"What the fuck!" Faith yelled, "Dawn! What did you do to me?"

Dawn chuckled maliciously, "You're a real heavy sleeper."

"Tranquilizer darts will do that. But what is THIS?"

"What's it look like?" Dawn asked, dropping an empty bottle to the floor as she approached the bed.

"It looks like a dick." Faith said as she tried to figure out how it was attached, "What did you do?"

"Relax." Dawn said easily, and only now Faith had realized that Dawn's eyes had turned into two sightless red balls.

Faith flinched back across the bed and said "Whoa! What the hell is going on?"

"It's a toy." Dawn explained, "We can remove it any time we want."

Faith frowned, "Okay then. How?"

"All you have to do is use it first." Dawn replied then chuckled, "You know, your boobies are smaller than I thought they'd be."

"What do you mean, USE it?" Faith asked, getting off the bed as Dawn crawled onto the bed.

"I miss beds. Beds are nice." Dawn said sadly, gliding a hand across the bed sheets.

"Dawn. What do you mean but use it?" Faith asked again.

Dawn sighed, "Do I have to draw you a diagram?"

"You want me to use it on YOU?" Faith asked.

"Why do you think I gave you it for? Not scared of a little demon, are you?" Dawn said, almost in challenge as she smiled wickedly, "And I'll let you put it wherever you want."

Dawn licked her lips suggestively and Faith's dick twitched, making her buckle slightly from the unexpected reaction. For some unknown reason, Dawn was looking REALLY good to her right now. Maybe Dawn had done something else to her than just change her anatomy. Either way, she was going to pay for it.

"Lets see how you feel after I rock your world, missy." Faith said, pushing Dawn over and held her legs so they were pointed towards the air. Faith had really only did this once before, with Harmony, but that had been a real learning experience for her so she knew what she was doing.

While holding Dawn's legs with one hand, she rubbed the head against Dawn's entrance and slid it in.

Dawn gasped and her eyes went wide and Faith slid in almost to the hilt.

Faith stopped there and caught her breath. It was so hot, so wet and so different from Harmony. Faith slowly pulled out and pushed back in to get a feel for it and couldn't help but make more comparisons to the blonde vampire.

Harmony was fleshier. Her love canal was a tunnel of well trained muscles which milked her with each prod while Dawn was so tight that Faith could tell she was getting torn apart by this.

Faith looked down at Dawn who had tears in her eyes but was nodding and pleaded "More."

"More?" Faith asked, not believing what she was hearing. Dawn was still so tight it was starting to get painful on Faith's side.

Dawn reached up and pulled Faith down into her, forcing Faith in at the deepest level. Dawn cried out in pain but this only seemed to turn her on as she started humping down on Faith from underneath.

Faith looked down into Dawn's glaring red demonic eyes with her contrasting soft, soulful brown eyes and reminded herself that Dawn could take whatever she dished out. Then Faith really got into it, pumping in and out of Dawn with abandon.

Dawn braced herself, by holding Faiths shoulders close to her and nudged her bottom half to the side a little, "Just a little to the left, Mmm, yeah. That's the spot."

"Damn!" Faith whimpered as her head became foggy with lust, "So damn hot!"

Looking down, Faith saw that Dawn was getting rocked around like shaken baby by her.

To Faith, she was her exploitable resource.

She was hers to pillage and plunder.

"Ghuh-gaa!" Dawn gurgled incoherently as she climaxed, trapped underneath Faith and her merciless assault.

"You like that!" Faith yelled at Dawn as she kept pounding her to stretch out her orgasm to painful levels, "That's what you get! That's what you-arr! Damnit! FAAAARCK!"

Faith clenched up, biting down on Dawn's shoulder and came violently hard. On their own accord, her hips bucked her but beyond that Faith wasn't moving and neither of them was saying anything.

Somewhere in Dawn's body, a large bone audibly broke and she gasped out in pain. Then her ribcage caved in, sounding like a bundle of sticks broken over a knee.

Then Faith's back arched and she let out a sudden and loud gasp for air, like she had just come up from underwater. After that, she slipped out and slumped over sideways, next to Dawn, panting heavily.

They looked at each other, both glistening with a sheen of sweat and by the look in their eyes, they weren't expecting anything so intense.

"That was.. different." Faith said, now looking at ceiling, "Not sure how I felt about it yet."

Dawn in the meantime, slowly rolled over and snuggled up to Faith.

"Dawn. You want more? After that?" Faith asked as if disgusted, "You're a dirty little slut, aren't you? Aren't you!"

Faith pulled on Dawn's hair a little and Dawn nodded, "Yes. I'm a slut."

"And you want your hole drilled, don't you? I'm not hearing you."

"Yes. I'm a slut who wants her hole drilled. Drill me, Faith. Please. I'll do anything, you want. Oh god. Drill me, please." said Dawn and Faith really couldn't tell how much of this was acting.

Faith sighed and let Dawn's hair go, "I'm too tired."

"I'll do everything then." Dawn said quickly.

Faith frowned and shook her head, "Not in the mood. Just tell me why this thing isn't off me yet. I used it like you said."

Dawn chuckled, "Oh, you just will it off."

Faith squinted, "Will it off?"

"With your head. You think it off and it just comes off."

Faith frowned and focused. Between her legs, she felt something squirm inside her and then felt something akin to pulling a band aid off. The rod of solid meat turned bluish-grey and seams appeared where it met her own skin. Wincing, she pulled it off her and then realized that half of the toy was a number of whipping blue tentacles that had been sealed inside her all this time.

"Here. Take it." Faith told Dawn and gave her the bizarre device. Dawn put it in a wooden box, the size of a shoe box then turned back to Faith.

"Can I eat you out now?" asked Dawn.

"What?" Faith asked, not believing Dawn just asked that.

"Can I eat you out now.. master?"

Faith's head tilted to the side curiously, "Master?"

Dawn lowered her head submissively but was smiling, despite her face which was streaked with tears. She leaned down to Faith's stomach and started kissing the mound just above her most sensitive parts.

Faith almost let her go on but decided not to. Instead she took Dawn's head in her hands and held her away.

Dawn frowned in frustration, "But I need you."

Faith just smiled and asked "You're my slave, aren't you?"

Dawn nodded, deliriously happy, "Yesss, Master."

"And I thought I was a freak." Faith said then chuckled.

"What is your wish?" Dawn asked with heavy eyelids.

Faith considered this, "You're horny, right?"

"Yes master. Very."

"You want to get off, right?"

"Please. I beg of you." Dawn pleaded.

"How about we give Spike a visit?" Faith asked with a mean smile.

Dawn's eyes went wide, "Spike?"

"Why not?" Faith asked easily, "You don't like guys?"

"But Spike doesn't like me."

Faith chuckled, "I'll just hold him down while you rape him. It's the vampire way."

OXOXOX

A dark, almost empty and rundown warehouse.

In the room was Travers and the two mercenaries who had followed him from the magic box. There was also a vampire handcuffed to the wall.

His two mercenaries had found a passing short, skinny male vampire. They tazored it and brought it here for interrogation.

Travers was furious and took it out on the vampire with a brutal punch to the face.

The vampire sobbed, "Stop hitting me, man. I don't even know you guys."

Not only had he botched the kidnapping of Kennedy but Travers had just watched his own mercenaries carted off by the local police. They had failed miserably and this would reflect poor on him. The police had even managed to capture Erica Downing, the product of months of training and hard work by his personal magical department.

He clobbered the vampire again and brought out more pitiful sobs from the wretched beast.

Travers hand had grown sore from hitting the vampire and started asking questions instead

"You know about the Slayers, don't you?" Travers asked.

"Sh-sure. Everyone knows about them." the vampire replied then offered, "Buffy's my favorite. Which one is yours?"

Travers hit the vampire again and yelled "I'm asking the questions!"

"Right. right. You're asking." the vampire cowered.

"Why is Buffy working with Faith? What is their plans? Has Faith found some way to control Buffy?"

The vampire blinked at him and laughed, "You don't even know, do you?"

Travers frowned, "I don't know what?"

"Faith is harmless. Well, not to me but to Buffy. They put some chip into her head which means she can't hurt humans without giving them a massive migraine. Spike has one too. That's why Buffy hasn't killed them yet."

Travers raised an eyebrow, "A computer chip? Inside her head?"

The vampire nodded.

"Do you think me a fool? The Slayer doesn't have access to that sort of technology!"

"But she does. Or rather, she did. It was an old initiative project. Harmony told us all about it."

Travers frowned, "The initiative? Yes, I remember hearing of them. Amateurs."

The vampire smiled agreeably, "Yeah. Amateurs."

"Thank you." Travers said to the vampire, "That will be all."

The vampire smiled brightly, "You're letting me go?"

"Yes. In a fashion." Travers said, pulling out a stake and stabbing the vampire before he screamed too loudly.

Before the vampires dust even settled on the floor, Travers had formulated a new plan of attack.

He pulled out his cellphone and started a long distance phone call. In the distance, something clanged and Travers told the two soldiers to "Go check that out."

The phone rang as the walked off and quickly after that he said "This is Travers here. We have a situation. The rogue Slayer called Faith is still alive… I couldn't agree more… You remember those initiative chaps? It seems they surgically implanted some form of behavioral modification into her brain… Yes, I see we're on the same page. So who do we have in Sunnydale?" Travers asked as muffled thuds and cries of pain echoed from where he sent the two ex-SAS.

Travers turned and frowned as Xander, Giles and Harmony walked out of the shadows.

He looked down at the cell phone next to his face and said "Do it." then closed it up and placed it back in his vest pocket.

"I should warn you. That you can't hurt me." Travers said haughtily.

Xander cocked the shotgun in his hands and pointed it at Travers.

Giles frowned and told the younger man, "Xander, put that down."

"Come on, G-man. Just one kneecap." Xander half-joked.

"Why did you bring that anyway?" asked Harmony, "We don't need a shotgun with me around. Hey, I did good, didn't I? I took those two guys down so fast!"

Giles smiled and stroked her hair, "Yes. You did very good."

"Your plaything killed those two men?" Travers asked, his veneer of calm shattered.

"No, silly." Harmony laughed, "I didn't kill them. I just beat them up a little. They're outside being arrested right now."

"Needless to say, I'll be walking out of here and not in police custody." said Travers, "And if something should happen to me, Rupert Giles will be deported and upon reaching England the Watchers council will have something to say to him."

Xander shook his head and lowered his gun, "I don't think so, tweed boy. First, Giles won't get deported. Not only am I the mayor of this town, I've now got political connections you wouldn't believe. Secondly, if the council has something to say to him, they'll have to say it to me first. Thirdly, you're dumb and need a toupee."

"Eww." squealed Harmony, "Toupees always come off looking so cheap. He should stick to the look he's got now. It suits him. It's very respectable."

Xander blinked at her, "You know I'm trying to insult him?"

Harmony blinked back and said "Oh."

Police appeared out of the shadows in much the same way the three Scoobies had and started arresting Travers who didn't resist.

Kate Lockley came up behind Xander and asked him, "So that's it?"

Xander nodded, "Yup. That appears to be it for now."

Kate grinned, "Good. You know where to find me."

"Yes, I do, Chief."

OXOXOX

Chase mansion, some time later.

Buffy and Willow crept into the foyer of the Chase mansion. While the mansion was on lock down, the front door had been left open.

Willow was putting her goa'uld gravity shearing gauntlet while Buffy had her favorite tranquilizer rifle readied. She hadn't really had a good reason to use it since Oz left town.

"I don't like this, Buffy." Willow whispered.

"Me neither." Buffy agreed, "You check Faith's room, I'll check Kennedy's."

"Okay." Willow said then asked "And where's her room again?"

"Upstairs, third door on the right." Buffy said, gesturing up.

Willow wandered off towards the stairs while Buffy stalked more intently towards Kennedy's room.

Before she reached it, she saw Kennedy slumped over on the floor in the lounge room.

"WILLOW!" Buffy yelled and ran towards her fallen comrade.

The first thing she did was look for injuries and then a pulse. When she found a pulse she sighed with relief. This reminded her just far too much of when she found Kendra dead for her liking.

"Oh god." Willow gasped at the entrance to the lounge room as she pulled out her healing device.

"She's alive." Buffy said quickly, "I can't find anything wrong with her."

Kennedy groaned and mumbled "Just another nail in the coffin."

"Kennedy!" Buffy yelped, "Wake up. What happened?"

Kennedy blinked her eyes opened and shivered, asking "Buffy?"

"Yeah. It's me. Are you okay? What happened?"

Kennedy focused and then said "Dawn."

"Dawn?" Buffy asked "What about Dawn? They took Dawn?"

"No. She got drunk and tore my shirt off."

Buffy frowned and looked at Willow who shrugged.

"She got drunk?" Buffy asked, "Uh, didn't Tell say something once about him and alcohol?"

"Why are you asking me?" Kennedy asked as she picked up the tattered remains of her shirt.

Buffy frowned and said "I'll leave Willow with you, okay? Just wait here. Travers might still have some people out there. We need to get to the bottom of this before they do something we'll regret."

OXOXOX

Mayor's office.

Xander was in his office, reading up on deportation and international law for Buffy when three of the Chasers came into his office, closing the doors behind them.

Faith came in wearing a simple black T and blue jeans. Spike was wearing his trademark black leather duster, a slightly torn white T and almost matching blue jeans. However, Dawn was wearing a cleavage enhancing black leather bra and a short plaid skirt. With the bruises all over her exposed skin, she looked like a teeny-bopper who had just survived a train wreck.

"Hey Faith. Where's Kennedy?" Xander asked, barely looking up at them from his computer but when he did he asked "And why is Dawn dressed like that?"

Faith turned to Dawn and said "Dawn. You know what to do."

Dawn gave her silly smile then jumped over the desk, pouncing on Xander.

"Hey!" Xander yelled as he got up, struggling with Dawn, "D-Dawn? What are you doing?"

"This!" Dawn laughed, tripping him so he landed back in his chair with her in his lap.

There were two quick metallic clicking noises and Xander realized it was the handcuffs which were now restraining his hands behind his chair.

Dawn laughed freely and happily, kissing Xander on the forehead and squishing her cleavage in his face.

Xander mumbled something unintelligent.

Dawn cleavage? Since when did Dawn have cleavage? Since when was Dawn and cleavage ever used in the same sentence?

This was a strange and scary new world Xander lived in.

"Dawn, stop that." Xander sputtered. Not only was the cleavage throwing him, but she smelled like she had taken a vodka bath. Xander thought he could probably get drunk just by standing next to her, the air would be around eight percent proof.

Dawn leaned back and Xander got a better look at her, particularly her stark red eyes.

"What is wrong with you?" Xander gasped.

"Well. I've been stuck in puberty for the last ten thousand years. That can't be good for my brains higher functions." Dawn replied as she stroked his chest, pinching one of his nipples.

"What are you doing?" Xander yelled, "Get off me."

"I'm a demon and you're a Xander. So it just makes sense that I want to rape you until you like it." Dawn chuckled as Faith walked up behind the desk and stroked Dawn's hair.

Dawn leaned back into her hand and mewed something incoherently, something sounding like latin.

"You still with me?" Faith asked.

"Yuh-yeah." Dawn said dreamily.

"I bet you wish you brought me that bike now, don't you?" Faith asked Xander, smirking as she did.

"What did you do to her?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? But if you play nice, I might let you find out. You know, it's a pity I can't rape you. That was fun the first time."

"I can do that." Dawn pleaded, "Please, I really want to. Let me. I bet he wants to spin my spider."

"I don't want to see that." Spike said shaking his head.

Dawn frowned then giggled to Faith, "Have Spike do it. That would be soooo hot."

"Gayah!", Xander squirmed in his seat and Dawn clamped her legs tighter and held him there.

"I second that." said Spike, "There is no way in hell I'm going near that clown."

"What sort of man are you?" Dawn huffed in disappointment then turned to Xander with a stupid smile and said "When we found Spike in the basement, he was asleep but he was humping a bean bag. It was so cute."

Xander grimaced, "I didn't need that image."

Faith trundled the office chair with Xander and Dawn on it out into the middle of the room while Xander told Dawn, "Dawn, whatever hold Faith has over you, don't listen it to. Let me go. This isn't you."

"She won't listen." Faith chuckled, "Now she's my very own single white female. My own little prostiteen. Aren't you, pudding head?"

"Yes, schnookums." Dawn said, gleefully.

Faith shook her head sternly, "Hey! No one calls me schnookums."

Dawn cowered then tried "My lickable monkey girl?" which didn't please Faith either.

"Why are you doing this?" Xander bawled.

"You mean, why aren't I doing this to Buffy instead of you?" Faith asked, "How do you know I haven't had Dawn kill Buffy yet?"

"No. I mean why Dawn! Of all people! She looks up to you. You're her role model." Xander shouted back.

"Because I could." Faith replied.

Dawn was getting impatient and started unbuttoning Xanders shirt.

Faith batted her hands away and she whimpered.

"No. Bad Doggie." Faith scolded Dawn, "I've got some different planned for Xander."

"But I wanna sandwich." Dawn mumbled then grinned dopily towards Faith, "Spike and Xander together, Mmmm."

"That aint gonna happen." Spike said very quickly, "So just drop that right now."

"Yeah." Xander said in agreement, "And what's a sandwich?"

Faith chuckled, "A Dawn sandwich. She's been bugging me for one since we left the house."

"Oh." Xander said in realization then wished he didn't realize, "Ohh."

"No sammy, Dawn." Faith told Dawn, "Instead you get a knife."

Then Faith took a knife out from her back pocket and gave it to Dawn who looked at it oddly.

"Stab him." Faith told Dawn like it was nothing.

Dawn blinked, "Wha?"

"Stab Xander. Kill him. Do it now."

Dawn shook her head and Faith grabbed a clump of her hair and pulled back on it.

"Who's my bitch?" Faith asked.

"I-I am." Dawn replied, although now she was crying.

"Then kill Xander for me." Faith said sweetly.

"Don't do it." Xander said quickly, "You know it's wrong. You know you shouldn't. Faith! Why are you doing this?"

"Your death, my fun." Faith said easily as she took one of the mints off Xander's desk and plopped it in her mouth.

With tear filled eyes, Dawn brought the dagger up in preparation to stab and sobbed, "I'm sorry."

Xander eye's widened when he realised that this was how he was going to die, handcuffed to his own office chair and stabbed to death by a teeny bopper. There must've been some sort of symbolism behind this but Freudian symbolism aside, Xander couldn't figure out what it was.

Then a golden blur knocked Dawn off Xander, toppling the chair over in the process.

Xander hit his head on the carpet but he wasn't too stunned, just surprised along with everyone else to find Buffy suddenly there, tackling her sister.

"Dawn!" Buffy yelled at her sister, "Stop it."

Before Spike could leave, Xander shoulder barged him into the wall. Xander was still handcuffed to his chair but he could still stand as long as no one was sitting on his lap.

When Spike recovered from hitting the wall, Xander brought his right foot up and hit him squarely in the groin. Xander put so much force into the kick that he actually lifted off the ground.

When he landed, Spike gave Xander a strange strangled sound and sort of folded up like a deck chair. While Buffy was still trying to get Dawn under control, Xander closed the doors to stop Faith from escaping.

When he looked, she wasn't even trying. Instead she was standing calmly, watching Dawn and Buffy with a hint of amusement.

"What's going on?" Buffy asked when she finally got the dagger off Dawn, tossing her annoying sister to the side, "What did you do with my SISTER?"

Faith backed off slightly, holding her hands up, "She's just drunk."

"The hell she is. Why was she going to stab Xander?"

"I told you, B. She's drunk." Faith explained, "You can't even blame me for it. She did it herself. Drunk herself stupid."

"Then why is she doing everything you tell her?" Xander yelled from across the room, "Come on, Faith. Fess up."

Faith chuckled, "Now that is a little bit more complicated."

"This is a new low." Buffy said, disappointed in Faith, "Trying to get me through my sister. I'd expect this from Spike but not you."

"Hey." Spike said in a hurt tone from where he was recovering on the floor, "This wasn't my idea."

"Spike. Not the time." Buffy told him angrily, "This is between me and Faith."

Buffy stalked towards Faith and Dawn shrieked out, "NO!"

"Dawn?" Xander grunted and everyone looked to see Dawn with Xander in a strangle hold,

"If you hurt her, I'll break his neck." Dawn threatened Buffy.

"Dawn. Let Xander go." Buffy said, trying to sound very calm, "Xander is your friend, remember?"

Dawn shook her head erratically, as if she couldn't focus on the scene properly.

"Dawn. Don't do that." Faith said quickly, "Just let Xander go. Okay?"

Dawn looked down at Xander and loosened her grip, "But.."

"It's okay. It really is." Faith added, "Why don't you just wait outside."

Looking lost, Dawn obeyed, letting Xander go and opening the doors long enough to walk out into the hallway.

"Oops. My bad." Faith apologized flippantly to Buffy, "I see now the errors of my ways. I shouldn't've had Dawn stab Xander. He's my best friend. Why didn't I see this earlier?"

Now Buffy was back to glaring at Faith. It was the same cold look Buffy gave Faith right before she put her into a coma all that time ago. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

"You know I hate the most about you?" Buffy asked.

Faith tilted her head, curiously, "What?"

"That you made me just like you. A killer."

Then Buffy brought the dagger forward and stabbed Faith straight in the heart.

Faith gasped and looked down at the knife.

Then the brunette laughed. This wasn't the labored, half-hearted gurgle of the dying who just realized how they went wrong in life and how stupid they had been. No, this Faith laughing at Buffy, "I didn't think you'd do it again. I guess I'm twice the fool I thought I was."

Buffy blinked and looked at knife which had no blood on it.

"It's rubber." Faith explained gleefully.

"Then.. why?" Buffy asked her back, slightly horrified.

Faith shrugged and laughed, "Just wanted to see if the lil' nut had it in her."

Buffy back at her blankly then started laughing.

"See? No one has to .. do anything .. they'll regret." Spike said uncomfortably as he got up from the floor.

Buffy walked over to him, still laughing and play-stabbed him with the fake dagger.

"It was all just a joke." Faith explained.

"Oh you guys." Buffy chuckled as she put her arms around their shoulders, "What am I going to do with you?"

Then Buffy stopped laughing completely and she pushed them both through the window at the same time.

Outside, Faith and Spike fell three stories down until they hit the pavement below.

Taking her time, she walked across the room to look out the window, seeing that they both got up off the ground, apparently not dead or mortally injured from the fall.

"Was that painful?" Buffy called out to them, "It looked painful."

"Buffy!" Xander yelled then stopped when he saw the cold glint in her eyes, "I uh.. I uh.. I just replaced that window."

Then she smirked, "See, I have a sense of humor."

"Dark, Buffy. Real dark." Xander said, shaking his head as he sat back down on the chair properly then asked "Could you get look in the second drawer on the right? I think that's where I keep the keys."

"Keys?" Buffy asked, looking at him strangely.

"For the handcuffs." Xander explained.

"Oh, right." Buffy said as she opened the second drawer on the right then asked "Why would you have keys for handcuffs in your drawer?"

"Do you really want to know?" Xander asked and Buffy shook her head.

After a quick look, Buffy found the keys and started uncuffing Xander.

"So you think Dawn is still out in the secretary room?" Xander asked.

"No." guessed Buffy, "But I'll find her, take her home and tie her down until she sobers up."

"Good plan." Xander said sagely.

Buffy grinned, "Thanks. I thought it up myself."

OXOXOX

Outside, on ground level.

Faith and Spike both groaned. Both the floor and they were covered in broken glass.

"She could've taken that better." growled Spike.

"Understatement." Faith groaned and ever so slowly got back onto her feet.

Then a small mob ran towards the two and they hadn't recovered enough to run away. All the mob were wearing balaclavas or bandana's over their face to protect their identity.

The ones which rushed Spike brought up three large crosses and Spike stumbled backwards, only to get clobbered over the head with a baseball bat.

Faith swung out at one of her attackers and her chip went off, wreaking electric pain on her brain. She fell over when it hit, helped by the beating the mob was giving her. Despite knowing how much it would hurt, she swung out again, knocking one from the crowd clean out this time to the sound of a broken jaw.

The chip cut in again and her stomach clenched painfully tight, throwing up her dinner onto the sidewalk while the faceless crowd around her beat her black and blue.

"Stop!" Spike yelled, trying to push through the numbers despite the crosses burning him and the pain. They were focusing more on Faith but when he tried to pull her free, he got kneed hard in the face. When he fell back, more people stomped her on his head.

He guarded against it but he had no hope of winning this.

OXOXOX

Buffy ran down the stairs, leaving Xander and Dawn several flights up.

When she reached the bottom and opened the door, all she saw was Spike lying still on the grass.

She ran over to him and looked for a sign of the attackers and found none.

She looked for a sign of Faith and found none.

She knelt down to the broken vampire and whispered "Spike."

Spike's eyes opened. His eyelids were puffing and bruised, something that didn't often happen to vampires when hit.

"They were human." said Spike.

"More watchers." spat Buffy, getting up and ready to kick some British arse.

"No." Spike croaked, "They weren't watchers."

Buffy frowned and asked "Then who?"

OXOXOX

Faith stirred from her sleep and opened her eyes. By the darkness and by the fabric she felt on her eyelids, she was blindfolded.

Quietly, she tested her arms and found them shackled behind her back.

"Aint this a switch?" Faith asked the world.

"I'm sorry about blindfold." said a dull, slothful sounding man. At least, Faith thought it was a man.

"It's alright. I'm into trying new things." Faith said with more than her usual rasp and swallowed some spit to help her dry throat.

"Hold on. Hold right there." The man said and a hand was placed on her shoulder, "Here, drink. It's water."

She leant forward and her mouth met with a glass, which she sipped from. It upended and she drank all the water she could as she was surprisingly thirsty.

"Isn't that better?" the man droned.

"Yeah thanks. Now about these cuffs."

"Those are for my protection. You're quite dangerous."

"What have you got to worry about? You're human, right?" Faith asked, "Well, I've got this computer module in my head which means I can't hurt you."

"Oh, I know. But it won't always be so."

Faith frowned, "Excuse me?"

"There's a fire inside you." the man said, leaning closer, "It's hot enough to swallow the world whole. Tasting it, ooh, tasting it would almost be worth never tasting anything again. It would be worth dying for. I just want to let it out to play."

Faith could feel his hot breath on her neck. She could feel him smiling in the darkness, his very presence causing her hairs to stand on end. He was so close she could smell him over the blood clotting her nose and swilling around her beaten gums in her mouth.

He smelt like cheese gone bad.

"I should point out, you're not my type." Faith joked.

"You prefer blondes?" the man replied.

"Now that you mention it, yeah I do."

"I've always had a thing for red heads, myself."

Faith smirked, although by the way her face felt, it probably didn't show.

"So what's the play?" she asked, "You gonna make it quick or talk me to death?"

"No, you misunderstand my place in all this. I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to free you. I'm just paying back an old debt."

Faith sighed then growled "Then free me out of these chains then!"

"No. Not free your body but your mind."

"My mind's free enough already!" Faith grunted and pulled on the chains.

"I'm so sorry you think so." The voice said insincerely and Faith felt cold hand latch onto her temples.

"This will hurt. It's better if you relax." he whispered, almost sympathetically.

"What will hurt?" Faith asked curiously and then her vision became filled with a blinding purple lightning which burned on the inside of her eyes.

OXOXOX

The next thing Faith knew, she was floating in a warm bath. The water was stained with blood and dirt and was scented strongly with vanilla but it at least it was comfortably warm.

Her eyes flicked open and she saw Buffy above her with a sponge and a concerned look.

"Relax Faith." Buffy said soothingly, "You're safe now."

Faith relaxed and focuses on the throbbing headache she had.

"What happened?" Faith asked then more alert, "And why am I naked!"

"I'm just giving you a bath." Buffy explained then at Faith's look she added "It's nothing I haven't seen before."

Faith frowned then her head lulled back as sleep tried to claim her.

"Faith!" Buffy called out to her and held her head, "Stay with me. Okay?"

"Okay." Faith said sleepily.

Buffy frowned and said "Keep talking."

"I'm tired, B." Faith mumbled then felt a sponge stroke along her leg and it waked her up a little.

"What are you doing?" Faith asked.

"Giving you a bath." Buffy explained as she scrubbed a blood stain off Faith's leg, "You really need it."

"Oh." said Faith, not accustomed to the luxury treatment.

"Do you want something to eat? Or drink?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"No."

"I thought as much. The wiccans think you're not going to have any appetite for the next few days."

"What happened?"

"You don't remember?" Buffy asked.

"No. What happened?"

"You were captured again, like before. They tried filling you with bad mojo again."

"I'm weak." Faith said, trying to lift her hands out of the water.

"If it was anyone but a Slayer, you'd be dead right now. Even then, I can't believe you ran away in this condition. I'm just going to lean you back, okay? To clean your hair."

Faith didn't say anything as Buffy repositioned her deeper in the bath and gently lowered her head back into the water.

With the same gentleness, Buffy glided her free hand along Faith's scalp, rubbing blood clots out of her hair.

Faith struggled to move but couldn't. She was effectively paralyzed. All she could do is look up into Buffy's caring green eyes.

Despite her condition, she was feeling loved and cared for. She was helpless and yet she wanted more of it.

Faith wanted to live like that forever but she couldn't ask that of Buffy because it was absurd. Buffy hated her. Buffy despised her.

"It's a little strange doing this when you're awake." Buffy chuckled then stopped, "Faith. You're crying. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"No, really. What's wrong?"

"I bet you're just loving this."

Buffy frowned, "Let's not fight, okay?"

"Why don't you just drown me now and get it over with?"

Buffy frowned then leaned over Faith. For a second, Faith thought Buffy was really going to do it but she pulled the plug out instead.

Before the water had half drained, Buffy pulled the Faith and held her over the bath for a while so that she would drip into the bath instead of on the floor. Then Buffy placed Faith on an over sized bath mat and started drying her off.

Faith's body didn't appear to have any injuries. Willow had obviously been using her favorite alien device again.

Buffy was still gentle but now much more surgical with a towel, knowing that lagging on this chore would be remembered by Faith and brought up at awkward times later on. Faith noticed Buffy skimmed right over her groin but Faith decided not to comment on it. This was already embarrassing enough as it was.

"You used to do this for me when I was in a coma?" Faith asked curiously when Buffy had finished and picked Faith up in the towel she had been using to dry her off with.

"Yup. Every day."

Faith frowned then said "You know, you're making it hard for me to hate you."

Buffy chuckled as they carried Faith out of the bathroom, wrapped in the towel, "Oh shoot. You uncovered out my secret evil plan."

Buffy took Faith into the spare room, which used to be Faith's room when she was in a coma, and spread the brunette back on her old bed. By the dim sunlight coming through the window, Faith guessed that it was extremely early in the morning.

On the bed was some of Buffy's hello Kitty pajama's which she then dressed Faith with.

"Oh god." Faith groaned, "Me and hello Kitty."

"A sign of the apocalypse, I know. But I'm sorry. I don't have any non-cute pajamas."

Faith didn't say anything else as Buffy pulled up the pajama bottoms and the blonde tucked her into the ready made bed.

"Stay." Faith said weakly.

Buffy looked down at Faith and didn't know what to say. Then there was a knock at the door and Willows voice came through, "Buffy? Can I come in?"

Buffy sighed, "Yes, Willow. It's okay."

Willow came in and gasped when she saw Faith's eyes open, "She's awake."

Buffy grinned, "I told you she'd bounce back."

Willow fidgeted and said "They want you downstairs."

Buffy moved forward then stopped and looked back at Faith, gently stroking some hair away from her face, "You'll be okay, won't you? I'll be back shortly."

Buffy and Willow left the room, leaving the door open as they did.

Faith heard the floorboards creak under their feet as they made their way down the stairs. When they made it to the bottom, Faith heard Giles rattle something off about dire circumstances, the world being in peril and the ramifications being cataclysmic. Didn't that guy's worry muscle ever get tired?

"So what do you want me to do?" Buffy asked, "Lojack Faith?"

The murmurs that followed that made it sound like it was a good idea.

"She's out of control, Buffy." Willow argued, "Have you already forgotten what she did to Dawn?"

"No." Buffy said quickly, "Of course not."

"I'm the most pro-Faith person here." Xander said in his most official sounding voice, "But that girl is disturbed. I know this more than anyone."

Faith gritted her teeth and clenched her fists. Who was HE to call HER disturbed? He's just as fucked up as she is. Perhaps even more. You don't see her getting moon-eyed with ex-demons.

"Does she remember anything that happened to her?" Giles asked, "Are you sure she isn't withholding anything?"

Giles could talk. Him and Harmony. It's sick. She'd met men like him before. All polite on the outside but once they get you home the inner rapist comes out to play.

"No." Buffy said glumly, "But maybe she'll remember something tomorrow."

"Same as last time then." Willow said spitefully.

Willow. Oh, Faith'll enjoy tearing that bitches throat out. What's her problem anyway?

"Faith. She honestly doesn't remember anything from the first time." Xander said emphatically, "I've got her memories of then, remember?"

Faith chuckled and eased herself up onto her elbows. It looked like her super fast healing powers were finally kicking in and they were kicking in fast too. In fact, she was starting to feel pretty good.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" Tara asked quietly. A few minutes ago, Faith wouldn't have been able to hear that but now her senses were back to their usual heightened levels too.

She smiled at that and smiled of her mental image of Tara. Out of all the scoobies, she was probably the one she least hated. In fact, she loved goading the timid witch almost as much as she loved goading Buffy. She'd save her for last and spend her time on her. Of course, she'd have to kill Buffy first. Once she does that, the Scoobies won't have a leader and they'll be easy pickings for her.

Quietly, she pulled back the sheets and got out of the bed. She was still felt a little weak and estimated that she was somewhere around normal human strength right now.

Still quietly, she snuck out of the room, down the corridor and into Buffy's dimly lit room while the others were talking about her behind her back... and down the stairs too.

Once inside Buffy's room, Faith looked around. The last time she had spent any length of time in here was back when she swapped bodies with the blonde and Buffy wasn't exactly living there then. It would have been the perfect chance to get IT back but she didn't take IT. In fact, she hadn't that about IT since she lost IT.

Faith looked under the bed, where Buffy had some weapons and thought about IT. IT was more than just her gift. Buffy used IT against her and more than just once too. Faith sighed and guessed it wasn't under there so she opened Buffy's wardrobe up instead.

There was an axe against the back, behind some clothes, a few stray stakes and knives with the rope at the bottom of the wardrobe.

Then she had found her IT, her knife. IT was the same knife the Mayor had given her. It was like her in so many ways. It was beautiful and wickedly curved just like her. It was vicious and lethal just like her.

And Buffy had it hidden away on a high shelf in her closet!

Faith grabbed it and stroked another hand across its slippery, frictionless edge. She could literally feel its thirst calling for her, screaming her name.

Outside, Buffy crept up the stairs while the others kept talking downstairs. She was still on alert because of what happened the last time Faith came back from being experimented on. Buffy lost her boyfriend and almost lost her arm too. The others would say Buffy was being paranoid but in Faith's case maybe they really are out to her.

She heard something coming from her room so she ran towards it and flicked on the light.

Faith spun towards her, now wearing Buffy's favorite leather pants, a black shirt and a cute rib-hugging leather jacket.

"I'm feeling better now." Faith said with a fake smile, "I didn't think you'd mind if I borrowed."

Buffy frowned with concern then said "Whatever. As long as I get them back."

Faith walked slowly and seductively towards Buffy and then when she was almost kissing the blonde she said "When you want them back, you can tear them off my hot little body."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Buffy asked, backing up to wall, "You could hardly move a few minutes ago. Sure you don't want to stay the night?"

Faith smirked, "That almost sounded like an invitation. But nah, I think I'll go home where I know I've got Bottie to warm my bed. Can't trust you when you hit on me."

With the chip gone from her head, Faith couldn't help but giggle. Buffy had no idea it was gone but Faith knew. She could feel its absence. Buffy had no idea about the knife Faith had hooked under her belt either. She could whip it out and spill the girls insides all over her bedroom floor right now if she wanted to and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

"What?" Buffy asked, looking at Faith oddly.

Faith considered gutting Buffy for a few more seconds then said "Nothing. I'll be seeing you later."

Faith decided that some things are worth waiting for and left the little blonde for now.

But she would be seeing Buffy later.

Oh yes, there's a reckoning coming to Sunnydale and no one was getting free this time.

OXOXOX

FIN

Oh yeah, It's on like Donkey Kong now!

Are Buffy's days numbered? Wait and see in the next episode titled "People die", the last climactic episode in this season of Outtaverse,

So how's your week been? Mine's been kinda sucky but now I can totally understand Mutant Enemies motivation behind making Wolfram and Hart, the evil lawfirm. I just finished with jury duty and have come to the conclusion that Law and lawyers are a horror like no other and it's about time that the truth came out.

And if it seems like I'm smashing Spike a lot recently, well, I am. Don't worry though cos I'm planning an extra special treat for him next time and no, it's nothing to do with him losing his chip. I like to think it is better.

Anyway, peace out and peace in.


End file.
